There is a huge, Biblical, and attractive evangelistic asset that is largely unused in the church today. It’s called Small Group Evangelism. In this message we walk through the Biblical validation of this method, and the practical ways you can implement it in your local church. 

<p>There is a huge, Biblical, and attractive evangelistic asset that is largely unused in the church today. It’s called Small Group Evangelism. In this message we walk through the Biblical validation of this method, and the practical ways you can implement it in your local church. </p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Lightbearers SDA Church

Dee Casper

What We Do is Not Good

God in heaven, I want to thank you that the scriptures give us clear counsel on how we can grow a local church, how we can make our churches healthier, closer and more effective in evangelism.

And I just pray that as we cover this topic this afternoon, that you would bless us with your peace, with your presence, and with wisdom and manna from heaven.

This is my plea, and I ask this in Jesus' name.

So the first thing I'd like to do is kind of start with a lesson by contrast, if you will.

So the typical evangelistic series scenario that you will see in a local church setting in most cases looks like this.

So typically we're gonna hire somebody to preach or the pastor's going to plan to preach.

From there, we mail out flyers, hoping that people will show up.

A 1% return on your investment is acceptable.

Okay, 1% of the flyers that you send out.

Some members invite friends and some other form of advertisement takes place, radio ads, banners, posters around town.

All of the attendees and members predominantly watch 1 man do a majority of the work.

The pastor comes, he does his thing, that's kind of what we look for.

And there's little participation from the members apart from maybe somebody responding to an appeal or bridge events if a church does them.

Bridge events meaning like cooking classes or family seminars or financial seminars as ways to kind of invite people before the series or happening during the series.

The series happens and a smaller number than arrived gets baptized.

People are being baptized that wouldn't have been baptized otherwise.

But then from there, if your church is fortunate enough to have conference funds or if they can afford to pay for it themselves, a Bible worker furthers the contacts along outside of the meetings, Right?

We now hope that the church will nurture them and that they're able to make friends as new members of the church.

That they're actually going to integrate.

Not just show up for the meetings and then disappear.

We also hope that somehow they're gonna want to reach out to their friends and community, but rarely equip them to do so.

And lastly, fear and lack of training keep many people from reaching out.

Now, this means of evangelism isn't sin, but it's not as effective as what it could be.

There are some biblical principles that are being applied and how these things are being done, but there's a lot that isn't being done to further and strengthen the people who come into our church when this happens.

A lot of people in a lot of churches around the country view this as this is how we do evangelism.

Our church needs to do evangelism, let's have an evangelistic series.

But what they don't realize is there is a huge powder keg of potential in a biblical means and in a biblical teaching that can really grow our churches and prepare us for evangelism.

So the Evangelistic Series is a reaping event, not a sowing and reaping event.

The purpose of public meetings was intended to be a reaping event, which means that you're sowing seeds all throughout the year in your community, continually investing in your community year round.

And the guy that comes in or the pastor that preaches is just doing a reaping event for people that you already have contact with.

But many churches, that takes time, that takes preparation, it takes work.

A lot of folks think, well, we need to do evangelism, and they just jump into this.

But I wanna show you something this afternoon that makes this 10 times as effective.

So I'm not saying don't do this necessarily.

I'm saying there's something even more effective to prepare this to be even better.

So, here's the benefits of starting your evangelism with small groups.

It's located in a home which already is less intimidating.

To get somebody to walk through the doors of a church is a miracle today.

And I don't mean that because churches are all bad.

But just to have someone have the willingness and the courage to set foot in a church can be difficult.

Very difficult, especially a church they don't know anything about.

I lived a half hour from 3 ABN for 21 years of my life and had never heard of a seventh day Adventist.

You guys will go to church in a different day.

Praise the Lord was brought in the message through 3 ABN and eventually went to Arise.

But it's in a location that can be intimidating, small groups or not.

This is just someone's home and it's a friend of them typically, right?

You don't just like, I guess you could, but you don't have a sign at the laundromat saying small group at my house.

Like typically, you know them already, right?

There's a substantively smaller group present than at a church service.

Some people don't do well with large crowds.

They just don't know what all these people are about.

But if it's a smaller area and a smaller group of people, it's easier.

No suits required, no dress code to try to figure out.

It's casual and there's some activity or meal or both that makes them more comfortable.

We'll discuss more of this in a moment, but I'm just giving the overview of how they can typically run.

And the group participation is welcomed and encouraged.

Our church services today are basically to the exclusion of member participation unless they do scripture reading or children's story.

But that wasn't the way the early church started.

So you see there's a big difference here.

It's more comfortable to be around for visitors, for new folks.

It's way better in that sense, but we'll continue.

Now lay people are doing the boots on the ground investment and instruction instead of just a Bible worker or pastor.

We're no longer looking to our 1 person who does those types of things.

We all are actively involved in investing in people and instructing them and investing in them.

A community is being formed inside of the community of the church.

The church is the town, the community, the small group is the neighborhood if you will.

So you're building a community within the community which strengthens the larger whole.

Members and visitors have a safe place to be vulnerable and to grow in grace together.

For me to stand up in the middle of a church service and tell people what I'm battling with can be intimidating.

The larger the church, the more intimidating it is.

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What We Do is Not Good

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