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CHOOSING AN AREA TO BEGIN EVANGELIZING
Unit 2 Chapter 4
Once you decide what age group you will begin with it is time to pick your Area.Your area should be your own neighborhood or the homes closest to the area where your meetings will be held. There are several reasons for this. One of the main ideas of the ministry is thorough evangelization, to cover areas completely with the good news of Jesus, to take church to where the people are, to give everyone an opportunity to not only be born again but also to be discipled, mentored, loved, and nurtured and used by God. In other words to be pastored. If the houses are close then teens and children can walk to the services. Or if you have to do pick ups your route will be short and can be completed quickly.
Of course you can and should invite people that you know from other areas of your city or county. Some may not know the Lord or some may be Christians that have a heart for soul winning or Christians who are frustrated and want to join with other Christians who are doing a powerful work for the Lord.
Another main idea of this ministry is multiplication. As a house pastor it is your job to motivate, train and send others to also reach out to their neighborhood. Multiplication is the key to effectively evangelizing. The more house churches that are birthed within a city the quicker that whole city is thoroughly evangelized and discipled.
Of course you will never be alone in training and equipping or any other phase of this ministry. We all work together to reach our goals. Headquarters in Pensacola Florida will provide you with all the training help you need. This ministry is made of many "lay ministers" all working together, taking church to where the people are. In time,God will call many of you to do this work full time. Others of you God will continue to use you in your workplace while he also uses you in your neighborhood.
Your area can be as large as it needs to be to build your church and as you evangelize an area and send people out to start more churches you will enlarge your area and continue to evangelize out further. You expand your area when you feel it is time after consulting God in prayer. You continue to build relationships with the people in your area that have not started to come to your meeting yet in the ways God shows you. You also continue to disciple, mentor, love and train those that God has added to your group.
We recommend that you begin with between 200 and 300 homes closest to your home. This should build a good size home church but depends on the area.
Step one: First look at a city or county map with your area on it. You can access maps on line as well. Choose a well populated area close to your home. Or the roads that surround your home, depending whether you live in the city or in a rural area. Write the names of these streets or roads down.
Step two: Now you need to find out how many homes are on those streets or roads.
Go to www.whitepages.com
Click on "Reverse addresses" at the top of that page.
Type in your first street name the city or zip code and the state.
Hit search
It will bring up every address, persons name and phone number on that street. At the top of that page it will have how many homes are on that road. Of course it only gives those that have phones. Since most people do it will give you an pretty accurate picture of how many roads you need to target to have the number you decide you want to begin with.
Step three: Getting a list. You will need this information if you plan on doing a mailing. If you are not you may not feel you need a list of this info just yet. If you do want a list here is how:
Click the printer friendly button at the top of this page.
It will only show 10 addresses at a time so if there are more than 10 on that street you will have to click the 11-20 button, click printer friendly button again and print that page also. Continue the process until you are finished printing all the addresses on that street.
Use the back button to get back to where you can put the information in on your next street and continue the process until you have enough homes to begin with.
You may find an easier method than this, if you do please let us know and we will share the information with everyone.