LET YOUR STORY BE HEARD

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LET YOUR STORY BE HEARD

• Growing Healthy Congregations
• Through
• Effective Evangelism

The Episcopal Diocese of San Diego Presented by
the Rev. Canon Steve Wendfeldt
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(No Transcript)
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Outline of the Day 830 - 845 Gathering
Time 845 - 900 Welcoming Time 900 -
915 Introduction 915 -1000 Corporate
Evangelism and Congregational Witness Telling
your Congregational Story 1000-1030 Table
Discussions BREAK 1045 -1130 Via Media
Effective Evangelistic Communications Spreading
your Congregational Story 1130-1200 Table
Discussions 1200 Lunch 1230 -115 Personal
Evangelism and Individual Witness Telling your
Own Story 115 -215 Table Practicum 215-300 Que
stions
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Goals

• Help your congregation embrace Evangelism, not as
  a program, but as a way of life.
• Help your congregation live more fully into the
  Great Commission.
• Help your congregation develop a plan for
  Corporate Evangelism.

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• Help you develop an effective Congregational
  Witness that will empower and equip all members
  to
• Tell the story of your church
• Invite them to come to church
• Shepherd them along the way
• Help you develop a Plan to more effectively use
  your assets and take up your role at the Center
  of your community.
• Help your congregation develop a Plan for
  reaching into your community to make a powerful
  impact for Christs sake.

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• Help your congregation build an effective,
  evangelistic Communications Ministry that
  supports your work and enhances your ability to
  tell your congregations story
• Help you train and encourage your members to
  witness to their faith in Christ and develop
  their own personal testimony
• Help your congregation prepare for the miracles
  that God has planned for you
• Help your church become the Body of Christ it is
  called to be

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The Meaning of Evangelism

• Greek word for Angel
• Bringer or bearer of news or tidings about God
• Announcer of Gods message
• Christian Evangelism has come to mean
• Bearing the message of the Good News of Jesus
  Christ
• The telling of the Gospel story so that others
  might come to know Jesus and become his disciples
• Sharing with others ones own story of the
  relationship you have with Jesus

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The Purpose of Evangelism

• To build the Kingdom of God on earth by building
  up the Body of Christ so that Gods Plan, which
  is the restoration of the creation to God, may be
  fulfilled.

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The Task of Evangelism

• The Great Commission (Matt. 2818-20) given to
  the Apostles, The Church
• Go Make Disciples
• Baptize them Bring them into the Body
• Teach them all that I have taught you (so that
  they can go make more disciples)
• It is the work of the Church and the Job
  Description of those who make it up

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Evangelism is not

• Church Growth
• About leading people to church (Its about
  leading them to Jesus)
• Reserved for the clergy
• Something finished in the Apostolic Age
• Always politically correct or acceptable in this
  Age of Plurality

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• Something reserved for the wild-eyed
  evangelicals
• Standing on street corners barking at people
• Beating people up with the Bible
• About the condemnation of others
• Just for those outside the Church

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Evangelism Is

• All about sharing Gods saving grace in Christ
  Jesus
• A command from Jesus to his Disciples
• Not an option for the Church
• One of the Primary Ministries of the Church
• For everyone, even church members
• A Spiritual Gift for some
• A Job Description for all

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Some things we believe about Evangelism

• If we will do it, God will bless it
• If we will do it, the Church will grow itself
• If we will do it, we can become the Body of
  Christ that God has called us to be
• If we will do it, we will be building the Kingdom
  of God

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Telling Your Congregational Story The Witness of
the Body

• Qualities of a Witnessing Congregation
• A sending placeexpects people to go
• A welcoming placeexpects people to come
• An empowering placeexpects people to be
  transformed

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A Witnessing Congregation

• Has a story to tell
• Earns a reputation by
• Becoming the center of the community
• Having Impact

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Before You Begin Your StoryKnow What You are
Dealing With

• Where is your church?
• How long has it been there?
• Does anyone know your church is there?
• Why would they know?
• They dont know you are there!
• At least not for the reasons you would want

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Does your church have a Story?

• If not, why not?
• If yes, is it the story you want to tell or has
  it been made up for you?
• Do you want a say in the telling of your story?
• What would you like your story to say?
• For what do you want your church to be known?

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Who can tell your story?

• Your leaders?
• Your members?
• Outsiders?
• Is it well known to all or do you make it up as
  you go?
• If you dont tell it, someone else will
• You are responsible for your Corporate Witness,
  one way or another

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What is the content of your story?

• Who are you?
• What do you believe?
• What do you value?
• What do you do about it?
• Where are you goingVision?
• Why do you do what you do?
• What do you expect to accomplish?
• Why there is room for me.
• What should I expect to see when I come?

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Ways to tell your story

• Earned reputation
• Media Witness
• Personal witness

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A Witnessing Congregation is at the Center of the
Communityby Choice

• Insinuates itself into a center role like Jesus
  did (Claim it)
• Brokers itself into a hub (Deal for it)
• Takes servanthood outside
• Sees itself as Light and Salt
• Realizes all it needs, it already has
• Counts the cost

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Choosing to be the Center

• Because of your Vision
• Because of your Facility
• Because of your Geography
• Because of your Ministry

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Your Vision

• How does your Vision express your Values
• Can your Vision be accomplished apart from the
  community in which you live?
• Does your Vision compel you to build bridges to
  your community?
• How do your Values intersect the needs of the
  community

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Your Facility

• What kind of opportunities does your facility
  provide?
• Who is a target to use your facility?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of your
  space?
• Would you be comfortable letting others use your
  space? Part or all?
• What could you do to make your space more
  functional for someone other than you?

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Your Geography

• How can your geography be valuable to you? To
  others?
• Are you in any convergence patterns of traffic or
  interest?
• Is your geography a help or a hindrance?
• What can you do about it?

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Your Ministry

• What ministry do you provide that might be able
  to interest or touch your community?
• What gifts are you currently not using that could
  move out into the community?
• What modifications could you make to what you do
  that might remove the barriers to community
  involvement?

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A Witnessing Congregation has Impact

• Discerns Community Needs
• Establishes Community Networks
• Reaches into the Community
• Touches the Community where its needs and
  congregations Values meet

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Discerning Community Needs

• Go ask. Talk to placeholders.
• Keep your eyes open
• Read all the media you can
• Check out gathering places
• Keep an open door and an open mind

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Establishing Networks

• What are others doing?
• What cant you do by yourself?
• What do you bring to the party?
• Find complimentary groups
• Find those who know more than you do
• Lead coalitions
• Nothing is outside the box

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Reaching into the Community

• Doing things on foreign turf
• Establishes credibility
• Reduces fear and suspicion
• Sign of servanthood
• Keeps us humble
• Be amongst, not over

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Your Values meet their Needs

• Be true to who you are
• Do what you do
• Stay in your gift set
• Let others do what they do
• If you do not operate out of your values, it will
  not have impact and it will not survive

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Impact

• If it doesnt have impact, why do it?
• If it doesnt transform lives, why do it?
• If it does not transform the community, why do
  it?
• If it does not add value, why do it?

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Spreading your Congregational StoryCommunications
Strategy

• VIA MEDIA
• Advertising
• Publicity
• Marketing
• Public Relations
• External and Internal Communications

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Advertising

• Promotion usually paid
• Do advertising dollars work?
• Newspaper- Religion pages not effective
• Other sections Works for seekers
• Displays health and vitality, message is less
  important
• Seasonal ads work especially well

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Advertising

• What is your ad trying to accomplish?
• Who are you trying to reach?
• What do you want them to do?
• What information is critical?
• Copy and presentation have to answer those
  questions
• Get design help
• No matter what Always truth in Advertising

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Advertising

• What kind of ads do best?
• In what publications?
• Placement Where do you want your ad?
• What days?
• Set of ads are more effective and at a reduced
  rate
• are far less on off days and weekends
• Best not to use metro pubs
• Use smaller market publications

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Publicity

• Information about upcoming events or programs
• Good publicity begins with good planning
• The best publicity cannot make up for an ill
  planned or ill timed event Be aware
• Things get lost in planning so
• Set deadlines
• Pin down details

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Publicity

• Your Event
• Some are for insiders
• Some are for outsiders
• Some for both
• Some are trying to make outsiders insiders
• Clarify who is the intended audience and what the
  purpose is
• Use different vehicles for insiders vs. outsiders

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Publicity

• For Public
• Tacitly allay concerns that it is a religious
  event or be very clear that it is and provide a
  creative bridge for the context
• Example
• Come hear our prominent members talk
• about their faith
• VS.
• How todays executives are navigating the
• spiritual landscape

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Publicity

• Event or program
• Target audience?
• Does it support your Mission? How?
• What image are you presenting?
• What vehicles work best?
• Young folks Email or brief catchy invitation
• Old folks Formal mailed invite
• Give RSVPs and call numbers for information plus
  website

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Publicity

• Good publicity states what is necessary and
  nothing more
• Date, time, place, address
• Logistics. Directions, map, childcare,
  registration, fees or not, donation or not, etc.
• For additional information, website or phone
• Anticipate why one would come, their
  expectations. Use images and words that invite
  them to take the desired action.
• Always test your publicity

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Publicity

• Good publicity is clear about your intended
  audience
• Target your constituency
• Decide what success looks like in reaching them
• Good publicity is accurate
• Always have a proof reader

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Publicity

• Good publicity uses a variety of effective means
  to promote an event six sticks
• For insiders
• Use common vehicles use them all plus word of
  mouth
• You must ask inviters to invite they wont
  think of it themselves until you change the
  culture
• For outsiders
• Use web, print, media, community postings, get on
  everybodys page only takes a call or visit

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Publicity

• Road to success
• Get a relationship with an editor
• Use regular press releases
• Without relationship, they seldom work
• Church events will not be covered by media unless
  there is something remarkable about them, things
  with impact. That can open the doors
• Always invite public figures, mayor, city
  council, police, fire, business leaders, etc.

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Marketing

• Establishes or reinforces organizational identity
  and defines various constituencies
• Even the term is controversial for churches
• Smacks of commercialism, selling, worldliness
• Yet Faith and the church get lost in the muck of
  the modern day
• There is no brand loyalty and we are living in a
  world where soccer wins 99 of the time. That
  should tell us something

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Marketing Strategy

• Build a Marketing Plan
• Define your targets
• Decide how best to convey your message
• Implement your plan

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Marketing Plan

• A good marketing plan
• Articulates who it is for
• What it fulfills (Mission, Vision)
• Who it seeks to serve
• How it will do that
• What instruments it will use
• How it lets you define the meeting of your values
  and the worlds needs
• This can feel a long way from the spiritual, but
  it is Evangelism. It is letting your voice be
  heard.

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Marketing Targets

• Identify your own congregational groups and key
  constituencies
• What are their needs/concerns
• Example
• Old-timers resistant to change
• Young folks need childcare
• Create a clear picture for yourself
• Do the same thing for groups outside as well

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Marketing Targets

• Identify outside groups in relationship to your
  congregational mission
• What is your area of influence with these groups
  ?
• Identify messages for selected groups
• Two or three key messages for each
• Find areas of overlap or disparity
• Be clear about appropriate delivery systems
• Email for elders? Long newsletter for rushed
  parents?
• Who is missing?
• Inner-city church with no inner city people
• Can you live without the missing groups

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Marketing Targets

• Take care of who is missing and who you want to
  reach that you dont already have or know little
  about
• Choose carefully your targets
• What you can do and what you can support
• The Goldilocks problem

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MarketingConveying the Message

• What will work best?
• What instruments? For whom specifically?
• How often? In what pattern?
• Create new, use existing or both
• Mailings, flyers, invitations, deliverables,
  collaterals, web, print, media
• Use database for internal
• Use lists for external
• Buy lists from Chamber, newcomers, realtors. Etc.

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MarketingImplementing your plan

• Insure there is a response mechanism
• How did you hear
• Grow more effective use the responses
• Set response expectations
• 3 Mailings of 500 or more expect 1 ½ response
• Timing is everything
• Be sure that your segmenting does not split your
  constituency along group lines

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Public Relations

• Establishing identity as a participant in the
  community
• Individuation and Separation
• Managing your image
• Getting your story out
• Getting coverage
• Sharing how rich you make the community, what
  added value do you bring

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Public RelationsEstablishing Identity

• Why recognize you?
• What have you done to deserve it?
• In this day and age
• You have no authority
• No reputation
• No presence
• The congregation is one of hundreds of
  organizations competing for space on the civic or
  cultural landscape

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Public relationsGetting your story out

• Congregations normally do great work, but live in
  silence
• No one knows who you are or what you do
• No one is going to tell them if you dont
• Many ways to do that

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Public RelationsGetting your story out

• Invest in relationships
• Print, media, radio, TV
• Easy to do things if they know you
• Visit, do lunch, tell your story
• Join groups
• Required for clergy and other leaders
• Chamber, civic clubs, community support orgs.,
  attend community parties and celebrations
• Get face time

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Public RelationsGetting your story out

• Determine what is worthy
• Establish links only if you have something to say
• Find current intersections with
  community/national/international happenings
• Mix faith and world
• Jobs, education, death and dying, war, defense,
  economy, etc.
• Be crisp and clear when teasing the media

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Public RelationsGetting your story out

• Know your congregational story
• Write it down
• Teach it to everyone
• Know your history
• Past and present
• Do a parish history project, archives
• Know your Vision, cold
• Set up interviews with Senior pastor
• Drop some carrots

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Public RelationsGetting your story out

• Keep it simple
• Dont use in-house language
• Put everything through a secular filter, a teen
  filter
• Integrity
• Can an internal event keep its integrity and yet
  be so compelling that it is available to the
  world?
• Write your own material
• Good editing
• Do the work for them, make their job easy
• Provide briefs, especially on important things

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Public RelationsGetting coverage

• Call, email or hand deliver with clear and
  specific instructions
• Dont go to the religion editor. Try to stick
  with the news desk
• Press releases will not work unless you have a
  relationship
• Talk directly to reporters
• Know what the hook is they are looking for

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Public RelationsGetting Coverage

• Be able to crisply explain why someone would want
  to know this and why it would have meaning for
  them
• Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays are the
  slowest news days Use them, save
• Be ready 2-3 days in advance
• Provide pictures
• Avoid head shots or still life (Nothing worse
  than a posed picture or one of the Vestry
  actively at work!)
• Use action shots only

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Public RelationsGetting coverage

• Once published or broadcast, offer thanks.
• Never stop doing it
• Even if it wasnt as you hoped, say thanks

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Public RelationsYour added value

• As you prove newsworthy, your information proves
  to be true and your impact known, you will gain a
  reputation and a place in the community
• Then they will come to you, because you have
  become the center of your community

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Telling Your StoryIndividual Evangelism

• Sharing the story of the saving Grace of God in
  Christ
• You dont need to know the whole story but enough
  to appear credible
• Know how much is enough
• Sharing the story of the Body of Christ
• -Your churchs story
• Are you equipped to tell the story
• Be up to date
• See it as important
• Tell the truth

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Telling Your StoryIndividual Evangelism

• Why should I do this?
• Christ demands it in scripture
• You promised at your Baptism
• Its your job
• Witness, testimony
• Strange terms for Episcopalians

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Individual EvangelismPreparing your Testimony

• Benefits of a prepared testimony (3 Min.)
• Use in nearly every witnessing situation
• Equally effective in large and small groups
• More effective than longer presentations
• It will help you present Christ in a clear,
  organized, attractive, and simple manner
• Will not necessarily be dependent on your
  presentation style

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Individual EvangelismWriting your Testimony

• Pray Ask the Lord for wisdom and guidance
• Prepare for groups or individuals
• Stay within 3 minutes
• Be realistic about your experience
• It does not have to be dramatic
• Life still happens
• Christ helps you live it

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Individual EvangelismWriting your Testimony

• Consider your typical audience of friends and
  write to communicate with them
• Use a three point outline
• My life before my relationship with Christ
  happened or deepened
• How did my relationship with Christ happen or
  change
• What is my new life like since my relationship
  with Christ began or deepened

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Life Before

• What were your attitudes, needs or problems
  Pick one aspect of your life
• Need for fellowship, desire to be loved, need for
  forgiveness, fear of death, disappointment or
  pain
• Around what did your life revolve
• What did you look to for peace, security or
  happiness
• In what ways were your activities satisfying
• Of what were you afraid
• What was an area of pain or disappointment

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What Happened

• What led you to a decision or renewed commitment
  to Christ
• When did you hear the gospel call
• What were your first reactions to Jesus
• When did you first change your attitude about
  Jesus
• What was the turning point
• Why did you decide to yield your life to Christ
• How did you make a response to Christ's call
• What does the Kingdom or Eternal Life mean to you
  now

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Life Now

• What has happened to your life
• What changes did you see or make
• How have your attitudes or actions changed
• How long did it take before you noticed the
  changes
• What does your relationship with Jesus Christ
  mean to you now.

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Check-List for Personal Testimonies

• Errors to avoid
• Hallmarks of a good testimony
• Principles to remember in presenting your
  personal testimony

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Errors to Avoid in your Personal Testimony

• Dont use clichés unfamiliar to the non-Christian
• Avoid vague generalities that are meaningless
• Avoid a travelogue dealing with only externals
• Dont make statements that reflect negatively on
  individuals, parishes, denominations or
  organizations

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Hallmarks of an Effective Testimony

• It begins with attention-getting sentence or
  incident
• It is positive from start to finish
• It is specific with enough details to arouse
  interest
• It is accurate
• The experiences described are relevant
• It is expressed pictorially, can be visualized

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Principles in Presentation of your Testimony

• Rehearse it until it is natural Its your story
• Share it with enthusiasm in the power of the
  Spirit
• Smile often
• Speak clearly in a natural, relaxed tone
• Avoid nervous mannerisms
• Avoid arguing or using high-pressure
• Avoid preachy
• Avoid you statements

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Additional thoughts

• Not a dramatic before I met Jesus story?
• Christian all your life?
• When did assurance or personal presence become
  real for you?
• Transformation over time (years) is just as valid
  and powerful as those that are Paul-like.
• Tell your own story The way it really is.