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This resource, called “Structures” is in the form of a 7-day mini seminar presented by “Everyday Evangelism”. Please subscribe to my E-zine for more Outreach tips. The links to the other days follow the article. Thank you so much for dropping by.
Evaluation in evangelism is so important. Please let me tell you a conversation that changed my whole view on evangelism and evaluation.
I was speaking to a good friend of mine who wasn’t a Christian a while back. He is quite a prominent businessman and has made considerable money through his company and investments. I’m not even sure how we even got onto the subject of evaluation except that we were talking about what each of us was doing. He talked about how he always spends this time of the year evaluating his company and changes some of his investments. He was genuinely shocked when I said we don’t do that on a regular basis in our motorcycle chaplaincy. We felt no urgent need because the people we minister to are almost caught in a ‘time warp’. Changes in outlaw motorcycle culture are slow and few. In essence, I still feel this is correct today. However, (mainly to shut my mate up) I agreed to talk generally about what we do and how we do it. I was so glad I did!
He asked me lots of questions pertaining to our evangelism in terms of culture, methods, plans, being noticed (Standing tall), resources available, potential resources and more. After a while one evangelism strategy emerged above other things. We had been involved in central major motorcycle shows which had served us well. However, in these major shows, numbers had been dropping and smaller more numerous club-based shows had sprung up. A trend that would see the bigger shows eventually come to an end, although we didn’t know this at the time. He then asked me two life changing questions. “Did you know the extent of this trend?”. I responded with “I do now after you asked me all those questions”. “OK”, he said looking over the page we had created together, “What strategies do we have here fostering relationships with organisers of those new shows springing up at the clubs?” It was a tongue in cheek question as the answer was obvious: NOTHING! I’ll never forget the look on my mates face and what he said as he leaned across the table. “So, we have identified a trend which you sort of knew about, to which no strategies are being planned and nothing implemented toward. If this is one of your primary methods of bible bashing (his words, not mine) I wonder how the rest are doing.” Then he became very cheeky. “Tell me again you’re a Christian ministry, not a business, and therefore have no real need of this type of formal evaluation on a stringent and regular basis”.
Set aside a regular time each year in your evangelism. You may need to do this more often if your target ‘Culture’ changes quickly on a regular basis. Ask the right questions. Evaluate each evangelism aspect separately. Ask yourselves whether or not the target ‘Culture’ has changed. What goals have been achieved, which haven’t? Why? After this ask which evangelism methods worked and why? Which evangelism methods didn’t work and why? Be pro-active about keeping statistics where possible. Most of all MAKE A NEW EVANGELISM PLAN from this evaluation. Don’t forget to update your 3 and 5 year plans.
Evaluate honestly (even brutally). One area which concerned me at one of the churches I attended was our evangelism men’s nights. I asked if we could look at the evenings and see what improvements were needed. After some initial reluctance we set aside an evening (as a group) to do this. After looking at the raw numbers (which we sadly had to guess at because no attendance figures were kept) it appeared there was on average 90% plus of Christians and lucky to be 10% of non-Christians. On at least one night (and I think more), there was not one non-Christian there! This concerned me greatly. We brainstormed, finally coming up with a different evangelism programme the following year. We formed groups that went down to the local hotel with the specific intention of forming relationships with the men there. After much prayer and looking at everything we could about the venue, we decided the best way forward was hanging around the pool tables inviting others to games. We took a genuine interest in the men around us. We still had the men’s night and many non-Christian men came. The next year our plan changed. With the blessing of the licensee, the venue of the men’s night changed to the hotel itself. Many more men were touched, not only by the night itself, but by our continued presence at other times on the pool tables and beyond.
All of this came about by evaluation and forming a new plan. We then had to look at what is ‘church’ for the ever-growing number of relationships God was forging through us.
Of course our success can only be attributed to Jesus. However, I still feel it was the Holy Spirit who prompted us to ask the RIGHT questions and EVALUATED honestly what we were doing. From this we IMPLEMENTED new strategies based on updated GOALS from our old Desires (which were still valid: foster relationships to introduce Jesus).
May God bless you in all your endeavors.
Captain Andrew D. Carter Dip. Ev., CA.
“Everyday Evangelism”
www.everyday-evangelism.com.au
My parting thoughts for now:
Pick the primary people group you wish to (or are) engaging with. Now pick a particular specific aspect (like my example of the monthly men’s night) and evaluate it.
How do each of the elements (e.g. Culture, Standing Tall, wise use of Resources, Goals achieved (or being achieved) etc. stack up?.
If you do not as yet have such a group, hopefully your church does. With the basic evaluation principals mentioned here, do the above by asking questions of one of the Leaders.
Links to the other days:
Day 1; Day 2; Day 3; Day 4; Day 5; Day 6; Day 7.
Link to other Resources.
I would like to give you many more thoughts on evangelism. Please subscribe to my free E-zine at the Top.
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