8 Ways Your Church Can Ignite Outreach

(4) How to Share Your Faith

A four-session curriculum that covers how to present the Gospel, what to say when someone is not ready to accept Christ and more

Equipping Attendees in Fontana, California

The How to Share Your Faith evangelism training has been “life changing” and “transformational” for the people of 6,000-attendee Water of Life Church in Fontana, Calif., says Danny Carroll, the church’s senior pastor.

The church has made How to Share Your Faith part of its School of Ministry, which 350 to 400 people go through at a time. Office staff and other personnel have taken the course, so they are able to share their faith more effectively with people with needs and hurts who walk through the doors, Carroll says.

“We saw people getting saved, giving their lives to Jesus in a gigantically transformational way,” Carroll says.

Carroll encourages other churches to offer the training as a core class for their congregations too, so they can see “supernatural things” take place.

“When we go away and hear, ‘Wow! Unreal!’ or ‘It changed my life!’ or ‘I surrendered to Jesus,’ that’s a win,” he says. “A transformed life is demonstrated by passion for God and compassion for people.”

(5) Lifetree Café

Public locations open once a week for an hour to anyone wanting to explore life and faith. Some of the topics (called “episodes”) include family, money, materialism, health and heaven.

Opening Doors in Rochester, New York

Lifetree Café is “being blessed enormously here at Hope,” says David Hurlbutt, director of music and outreach at Hope Church in Rochester, N.Y. “Since we began seven months ago, we’ve seen more than 200 people who are brand-new to Hope—many of whom I know would not have come any other way.”

One Lifetree episode, “The Witch Next Door,” attracted “at least seven pagans or Wiccans—two of whom returned last week for the episode on reincarnation,” Hurlbutt says. “You tell me what other ministry opens doors to people with such different worldviews or faith systems. Incredible!”

Many of these new friends have become involved in Sunday worship; “some have even become active members in our congregation,” Hurlbutt says. “And then last night in our Lifetree Café, a newer friend who’s come about six times gave her life to Christ following the episode. It doesn’t get better than that this side of heaven!”

Lifetree Café has seemed to have filled a large need to let people be who they are, where they are, in a safe place. “It just takes people with hearts for the lost and openness to do things a little out-of-the-box,” Hurlbutt says.

Accepting and Valuing People in Fort Wayne, Indiana

At 550-attendee Aldersgate United Methodist Church‘s Lifetree Café in Fort Wayne, Ind., during an episode focusing on the bestselling book The Shack, a second-time attendee began questioning why God wasn’t letting him come out of his depression and suicidal thinking.

“The room became electric with many people responding to him in love and with caring comments,” the church’s local pastor, Don Wismer, recalls, adding that one woman—also there for her second time—walked over to the man, sat next to him, put her arm around him, and quietly lifted him in prayer.

Wismer notes that while Scripture and Christian thought aren’t hidden from the discussion, participants are “accepted for who they are and where they are on life’s journey.” Many are feeling valued and heard for the first time, and that frequently opens the door to deeper dialogue about spiritual matters, Wismer says.

Wismer adds that his Lifetree Café also collects clothing and other items for the homeless and eyeglasses for OneSight.org and receives funds for ministries that fight child sex slavery. Those efforts prime the pump for evangelistic conversations. “These kinds of activities always interest caring people whether they are believers or not,” he notes.

He champions Lifetree Cafe ministry as an effective “turnkey concept” that a church can implement easily; volunteers can manage the roles of leadership, for example. Lead pastors needn’t add another obligation to their ministry plates.

For some, Wismer says, Lifetree Café is where they are most comfortable; they may not decide to become involved with a church in the traditional way—and that’s OK. “In my view, if we’re helping people enter into deeper relationships with Jesus, we’re doing what we’re called to do,” he says.

Wismer determines Lifetree’s evangelistic success mainly by the number of deep spiritual conversations that are happening among people not involved on a regular basis with the church. “The personal stories we hear from our participants as they sense God moving in their lives are wonderful,” he says. “The ways we have seen God orchestrate conversations and relational connection with one another is amazing.”

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