Mastering Outreach & Evangelism

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Positioning a church for evangelism goes far beyond implementing a program or hiring additional staff. Ultimately, it takes a corporate change of heart.
—Calvin C. Ratz

An ad by the Canadian investment firm Nesbitt Thompson featured this line: "Anyone can ride a bull, but it takes discipline to dance with a bear."

That's true, as any investor knows. When a "bull market" is surging ahead, as it was through the early 1980s, everyone makes money. But when it's a declining "bear market," that's not the case.

Pastoring has its equivalent. A friend, who'd never experienced significant growth in any of the churches he'd pastored, has suddenly enjoyed a spurt of numerical growth. "I'm not doing anything different," he claims, "but all of a sudden our congregation is expanding rapidly." That pastor is riding a bull market.

The fact is, several other churches in his community are experiencing similar growth. The demographics of his community, the subculture of his congregation, and an influx of transferees have all coalesced to nearly double his congregation in a couple of years. It has revitalized his church.

Many of us, however, are in a bear market. We work hard for every convert. We struggle to maintain our gains. It takes discipline to dance with a bear—the discipline of developing a long-range strategy and a balanced philosophy of ministry, the discipline of rejecting passing fads and apparent quick fixes, the discipline of developing personal character and integrity.

I began at my present church just over seven years ago. For the most part, I've danced with a bear. Growth has been neither automatic nor easy. In the process, I've had to come to grips with my own approach to ministry. I've had to discover how to direct the church's ...

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