Nebel began with the term “evangelism entropy.” Entropy increases. Church planters might start out with an organized approach to outreach/evangelism. But then entropy takes over.
A church planter is a joiner. He is a missionary to his community. He should be joining things: school board, rotary club, tennis league. Building corridors for connections.
Main Principle: Have people of influence think and say good things about you and your church
This legitimizes your ministry. (Note that a good reputation with outsiders is an explicit requirement of elders. But Nebel is talking about something more intentional – going after the leaders in the community.)
Mayor, police chief, journalists, real estate agents, tavern owners. These folk will get you in the path of more folk–the more people in your network, the more likelihood that someone will have some life issue arise that prompts them to attend a new church.
Check with a guy named John Kimmons in the Associate Reformed denomination. He is a very eager “joiner.” One trick he has is to keep his Thursday lunch open in order to have a member of his congregation introduce him to some new person in the community.
Nebel confesses that when he was planting a church in a small town in Wisconsin, he never met the most powerful landlord (Dave Catchill) who owned almost all the rental properties. He regrets this.
You must keep on working on evangelism/outreach, otherwise you will stop.
Four “Drop In” Principles
1. Be a learner and ask for advice.
(Particularly from the very influential people in the town. “Hey, I’m new in town, I’m planting a church, I know you are an influential member of the community, I’d love to get some advice.” Normally you can do a drop-by.)
2. Don’t go away empty handed: ask who else you should meet.
3. Never close doors: ask permission to drop in again.
4. Give them your card and say, “If you ever need me, call me.”
You want the card to be graphically pleasing. If you are in a bi-lingual community, have it in both languages. You never know when the guy’s daughter might die.
Four Questions
1. How many drop-ins can you do each week?
If you did two a week, that is 100 influencers a year. Or it could be one new appointment a week, and one time circling back. Two really should be a minimum.
2. Who will encourage you and hold you accountable?
This is of no value to you if you do not do something about it.
3. How will you track this?
Some sort of organizer.
4. When will you begin?
Nebel says the rule is this: If your church is stagnant, you need to spend 50% of your time doing outreach. (I guess the same would apply if your church is new. Actually, Nebel says the planter should always be doing outreach.)
List as many types of people in life transitions as you can think of. What kind of ministries can we develop to capitalize on these transitions? New divorcees, About to get divorced, about to get married, newly married, tragic deaths in the family, any death in the family, having a new baby, becoming an empty nester, immigrants arriving, job change/promotion/laid off, any new arrivals, addiction recovery, immediately getting out of jail, soldiers returning.
You’ve got to meet the funeral directors in your city! They are often looking for pastors to pinch-hit, and that’s a great way to meet evangelisically people going through a crisis.
One gentleman planting a church shared how he the voluntary chaplain for the police department.
Corporately: The Evangelism Culture
Fuel prayer
Think about natural life transitions.
Do special Sundays.
(Certain times of the year, you need to be particularly thinking in terms of outreach.)
1. Church attendance tends to follow a three-hump camel. April, September and December tend to be peak times. Good times for outreach. The other times of the year are good for consolidation.
2. Grade your Sundays as “A,B,C,D” (depending on how many will be there. The Sunday after Thanksgiving is probably a D Sunday.)
3. Consider a “draw” element (a personality, celebrity, etc.) The smaller the community the bigger the “star” looks.
4. Use giveaways to capitalize on follow-up.
5. Initiate a new series on an A Sunday.
6. If you need extra topics for the “peak” Sundays, think about God’s love, power, and forgiveness. Those are always biggies on people’s minds.