Unit 2 Chapter 5
The great thing about House Church as opposed to other forms of evangelism is that when you go to your neighbors door you are not trying to give them the full gospel presentation and get a salvation decision out of them, which is very difficult and uncomfortable for everyone. You are simply inviting them to come to your home for a bible study and Christian fellowship. You are reaching out to them with the love of Jesus. Once you get them there you begin building a relationship with with. You show them the love of Jesus and share Gods word with them. As your group loves on them and ministers to their needs the Holy Spirit begins to work in their heart. Without doubt they will give their hearts to Jesus as they come to realize that they need Jesus in their lives. If they already belong to the Lord they will begin to grow closer as your group fellowships with each other and with the Lord.
There are many methods of reaching out to your neighbors. The goals and vision of Chosen explosion House Church Network remains the same throughout all the churches but the methods that we use to reach our goals and fulfill our vision is as varied as the people that leads and fills our churches. I will discuss some methods of evangelizing here but be creative when you have success share the knowledge with us all. This article will be updated as we learn of new methods
Reaching Kids:
You can begin your kids club with a neighborhood event. We planned an event in a small park located in the middle of our neighborhood. A back or front yard will work well too. We had a free "yard sale" and gave away hot dogs and cokes. We had face painting and animal balloons for the kids. The night before our event we went door to door (about 100 homes, our target area) and handed out flyers telling about the event and inviting them to come. We used this opportunity to tell them about our ministry and about the Kids Bible Club that was coming to their neighborhood the following week. During the event we talked with parents and the kids getting to know them.
Our service consists of a sermon on their level, games, snacks or lunch, drama, puppets, prayer and ministry time.
We have only walked our neighborhood going door to door three of four times in the first 11 months. We don't do that lightly because we don't want people to grow weary of us so we make sure to design the flyer we are passing out carefully being sure to convey the message we need to convey.
Another method of getting into their homes is through the mail. We send out newsletters every two months inviting them to our services and announcing upcoming events, We include information about what the kids in their neighborhood is doing. We always include non-church information like varied articles that would be of interest to many people. We also include jokes or interesting facts. We try to make the newsletter light and interesting but to let it serve as a reminder of our presence in the neighborhood. I do include some spiritual content to the newsletter like a poetry and inspirational scripture.
Reaching Youth:
The beginning event we had also served to get the attention of some of the local youth, even though it wasn't designed specifically for them. We took the opportunity to talk to youth that wondered up into the park that day. Also before we had our first youth meeting we went door to door handing out flyers. Our first youth meeting had give aways, food, games and lots of fun. We played it up big and hit the streets door to door inviting the youth.
We kept our eyes out for youth in our neighborhood and we would stop and invite them to youth meetings when we saw them. My son and daughter would go hang out at the park and make interaction with youth when they saw them.
We include a section about the youth service in the newsletter.
We encourage the youth to invite their friends. Word of mouth is the best method of spreading the word.
We try to have lots dramas, youthy worship, games, snacks, lots of serious times but lots of fun too. We also feed them meals once or twice a month. Of course we have prayer and This is optional of course. Our home is not only open to them for church but most of the time. We have found they enjoy the attention and the fellowship. Many of them come by several times a week. That is probably because their youth pastor, my son, is only 19 and my daughter is 13 so they like hanging out with them. That is one thing about house church as opposed to going to church in a building, the relationships run deeper and overflow into every day of the week instead of just on Sundays and Wednesdays. People really share each others lives.
Reaching Adults:
We have found adults to be much more difficult to reach. Again we use the door to door method and the newsletter but we have found the greatest method is through their children.
We have special events that include their kids and invite them like meals, baptisms, special singing, etc.
We reach out to the needs of the parents when needs come to our attention like helping with food or other needs.
We try to intermingle with the parents as much as possible when we pick up or take their children home.
We also encourage the kids and teens to invite their parents to the family service.