Nine ways to create momentum for fall outreach

Legendary football coach Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant said, “Have a plan. Follow the plan, and you’ll be surprised how successful you can be. Most people don’t have a plan. That’s why it’s is easy to beat most folks.” In a recent survey, it was revealed that 79% of churches have no, to little, plans for fall outreach. This may be the reason why 80-85% of the churches in America are either plateaued or declining. Designing, executing and implementing outreach plans and strategies is one of the skills pastors need for creating positive momentum in their churches.

Here are a couple of insights that you can apply to plan your fall growth thrust.

1. Develop a team.

Too many pastors try to carry the load all by themselves, which is an unbiblical notion. Christianity is a team sport. Team building is one of the skills successful pastors need in their tool belts. Learning to pick the right players on your team is crucial. Guiding and leading the team is imperative. Trusting the team to execute the plan is empowering. Celebrating and encouraging the team is vital. I encourage pastors to use short-term task forces with a specific task along with a starting and ending point. If you built a task force for each of your major outreach initiatives for fall, winter and spring your team building skills would improve each time. Team building is a skill which is honed through the “learning by doing” process.

Getting key influencers involved in the process is vital to building positive momentum.

2. Develop a timeline.

To develop a good timeline, start with the last date of the project and work backward. If you are doing a fall growth push here are a couple of ideas. End your fall outreach campaign on the first weekend in November with a family friendly comeback event and start July first with the selection of the team. This is what I call the “three-month rule” which is to begin the detailed planning process at least three months before the launch of the outreach campaign. Here is an overview of what would happen in those
three months:

November
- Celebrate and evaluate progress
- Family-friendly comeback event
- Membership class offered
October
- Newcomers luncheon set
- Bible 101 or seeker study offered
- Small groups launched around the theme
- Sunday worship theme launched
- Second Touch teams equipped and empowered

September
- Teaching series on outreach and prayer launched
- Prayer walking implemented
- Affinity groups launched – youth, singles, men’s & women’s ministries
- Executing marketing plan
- Equipping congregation with promotional tools

August
- A clear call to prayer made to the entire congregation
- Prayer emphasis kick off
- Marketing and promotional plan set
- Marketing and promotional tools sent to the printer
- Small group leaders trained and prepared

July
- Team selected
- Theme developed
- Promotional strategy selected
- Graphic images & promotional tools designed

3. Brainstorm ideas for delivering strong biblical content that addresses the heart issues of your mission field.

Many pastors struggle with the creative aspects of leadership. I recommend that pastors research and purchase some of the good outreach or spiritual growth campaigns available. Many of these come with timelines, job descriptions, graphics, sermon ideas and small group materials. he key is planning ahead. After the church has done a few of these campaigns, then they can take a shot at developing their own.

4. Raise the spiritual temperature of the church.

It is a must to incorporate a church-wide prayer project for before and during the campaign. One example: Call the church to “pray for five neighbors, for five minutes a day, for five weeks” before the outreach campaign. Another idea would be to mobilize the church to prayer walk your whole community before the campaign. You could also call the church to a season of prayer and fasting.

5. Brainstorm ideas for creating buzz throughout the church and throughout the community.

Work with your team to think of ways to get the word out. I like to use sowing language when it comes to getting the word out to the community. Here is a post on the Sowing and Reaping Principle.

6. Drive the theme throughout the church.

Creating a sense of synergy throughout the church is important. Getting every section of the church moving in the same direction is a momentum building experience that creates positive energy and good morale. So take your theme and drive it throughout the church from seniors to youth, from singles to toddlers!

7. Develop comeback events.

Creating opportunities for new guests to connect relationally, as well as spiritually, is crucial to having a successful outreach campaign. Planning some type of family-friendly event is a great way to get people involved in serving for the first time and connecting relationally with others in the church. Offering entry-level Bible studies like Bible 101 or Christianity 101 within weeks of your outreach campaign is important in providing those next steps for those that are spiritually interested. Finally, you want to offer people an opportunity to connect with the church and its leadership by offering some type of newcomers luncheon or party at the pastor’s event where they hear the story and vision of the church as well as connect relationally with key leaders.

8. Recruit volunteers to fill needed ministry roles.

Doing campaigns is a great opportunity to recruit new volunteers for set up, event planning, children’s ministry, ushers, greeters, follow up, administration, new hosts for small groups, etc.

9. Drive your missional values deeper into the culture of your church.

Remember, anytime you do a campaign it is an opportunity to drive your missional vision and values deeper into the lives of your people. The values of evangelism, community, spiritual dependence and community transformation come alive during the campaign and provide opportunities for personal growth and corporate maturity.

Three strategies of outreach

Last month we helped leaders understand the spheres of outreach that exists within their community. Today we are going to move from understanding to implementation. If we, as leaders, are going to create a system that will stimulate evangelistic activity throughout the local church then we will have to develop strategies for each sphere within our community. To help us think through the issues I forced myself to ask ten questions under each area. Feel free to add to the conversation by sending in your own questions or another spin on the questions I came up with.

Strategy #1: MODELING – Creating an example to follow.

As a leader, how would your followers say you are modeling personal evangelism throughout your community?
As a leader, how are you keeping your heart passionately engaged in the harvest?
As a leader, how are you upgrading your evangelistic skills?
As a leader, is evangelistic activity built into your weekly schedule?
As a leader, how are you serving and connecting with community leaders?
As a leader, how available are you to people in need?
As a leader, what fun activities with unchurched people are you participating in?
As a leader, how do you identify “men and women of peace” in your community?
As a leader, how do you engage people in spiritual conversation and keep them engaged?
As a leader, have you ever considered hiring an evangelism coach?

Strategy #2: EQUIPPING – Creating missionaries to be sent out.

How are you stimulating outreach prayers for the friends, family and neighbors of your people?
How are you heating up evangelistic passion within your people?
Is evangelism training a part of your spiritual formation plan?
How do you identify and celebrate those with the gift of evangelism in your church?
Do you have an evangelism tool that is taught throughout the church?
What opportunities do you have for people to engage in entry level evangelism?
How are you teaching and mobilizing your people to love their neighborhoods and cities for Jesus?
What pre-evangelism events or opportunities are being created through your small groups?
What pre-evangelism events or opportunities are being created through your public worship services?
When was the last training event you offered to help people share their faith?

Strategy #3: SOWING – Creating connection opportunities for the unconnected.

How many people live in your “Jerusalem” that have no knowledge of your ministry?
How are you creating awareness of your church throughout the community?
What are the internet tools you can use to sow seeds throughout your community?
What are the promotional tools you can use to sow seeds throughout your community?
What are the media outlets you can use to sow seeds throughout your community?
What partnerships can you form that will enhance the church’s image throughout your community?
What community events or service projects can you join to live out the gospel?
How many pre-evangelism contacts are you planning to make this year throughout your community?
What percentage of your budget is dedicated to sowing your message throughout your community?
If people know about your ministry, what is the first thing that comes into their mind when it is mentioned?

Well, how did I do? What did I miss? How would you tweak the above questions?

I am dedicating this summer to firing up my evangelistic passion and addressing these questions along with any others that you send in. To opt into our weekly newsletter, click here.

“I pray that you will be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.” Philemon 6

Raising your evangelistic temperature

If a leader is going to raise the evangelistic temperature of their church they will first need to understand the three spheres of outreach:

Level 1: These are people who know the pastor and the name of the new church. This is accomplished through networking and the personal ministry of the pastor and their family. The key concept here is MODELING.
Level 2: These are people who are in contact with someone on the launch team. This group is reached through relational evangelism and personal invitations from the church. The key concept here is EQUIPPING.
Level 3: These individuals have no contact with the pastor or people within the church. This group is reached through a variety of awareness activities. The key concept here is SOWING.

Understanding these spheres is just the beginning. If leaders are going to stir up the evangelistic spirit of their church they need to develop comprehensive evangelistic systems addressing each of these spheres. A system is a reproducible process that actualizes the operational values and convictions you hold dear in your church. For example: As a leader what is the most common method you use to engage individuals in a spiritual conversation?

Once you have identified it, ask yourself the following questions:

Could this method be used by others or only you?
How long would it take for a person to learn this method?
Could a new believer easily use this method?
Could this method be taught by others?

If you can answer these questions then you are on your way to developing an evangelistic system in your community of faith. If you can’t, then the evangelistic temperature of your church is going to be pretty low. I am convinced that the pastors, leaders and churches in America need their evangelistic fires seriously stoked. Over the summer I am committing this blog to the task of encouraging and resourcing leaders to raise the evangelistic temperature throughout their church.

Who will join me is this task?