As evangelists, we all operate under the constraints of time, financial and human resources, location, and personal abilities.
The purpose of "Strategies for Evangelism" is to help ministers make the most of the time they have by offering a toolkit that helps them gather information about their locales, develop an understanding of the people around them with whom they may partner, assess their own gifts, and develop their own strategic approach to evangelism as they continue in ministry.
Michael Green on Paul's evangelism:
"...he seems to have made a deliberate policy of going for leaders in a community through whom, if he were successful in bringing them to Christian commitment, the message might be widely disseminated." (Michael Green, "Evangelism in the Early Church," 363)
We can learn from Green's assessment that Paul sought to convey the gospel message in the most effective, efficient manner that he could, given his own time constraints, and his particular social location.
Green also notes that Paul made use of every moment of his time to convey the gospel, even in sickness. Methodists will remember that effective use of time and resources was also something of an obsession with John Wesley.
As evangelists, we must remember that we all come from a particular social location, and that we will be operating within a particular social, geographic, and economic location. We will be working with people who may come from a variety of particular locations, stations and stages in life. Finally, within our limited life time frames we will be working within a specific era of American and human history.
How will you go about evangelizing over the next thirty or forty years?
"Strategies for Evangelism" offers ideas about how to understand our environment, other people and ourselves with the Evangelistic mission in mind. Within this site you will find tools you can use wherever you may find yourself in ministry.
In the section entitled "Looking Out" we offer a few ideas on how to use open sources of information to thoroughly understand the community in which you operate. This might be especially helpful to ministers new to a particular area.
The section "Looking In" presents ideas on getting to know the people in your area. Such information might influence the way you craft your evangelistic message to those people.
The section on "Self Assessment" offers a way of getting to know who you are, to exploring your own social location, and discerning your own gifts and graces. How might your vision of yourself influence whom you choose to evangelize, and how you go about evangelizing?
"Reaching Out" highlights two possible approaches to evangelism you might want to take - do you feel called to play to your strengths, or your weaknesses?
These tools will hopefully help you read the "signs" of your particular time and place. They are meant to be a component that helps guide your overall approach to evangelism, rather than as a "blog of definitive answers." This site is very much a work in progress, a work we hope will continue to build on and improve with your comments as we all continue on in ministry.
We as a team offer "Strategies for Evangelism" as a free resource to everyone seeking to share the Good News.
Suggested Courses, Reading and Viewing:
CHSOC 482: Leadership Skills and Community Organization
Warren, Rick. "The Purpose Driven Church"
Scott, Tony. "Spy Game"
