Evangelism is sharing good news! It is announcing, proclaiming, preaching, and demonstrating the Good News of Jesus Christ and inviting people to respond. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry says, “Evangelism is not about building bigger churches. It is about building a better world.” We believe that when we experience God in our own lives, it naturally flows over wherever we go. Sometimes, evangelism is viewed with suspicion. Part of our goal, as the community of faith, is to help break the stigma associated with sharing this Good News. And our goal as the Evangelism Committee is to make it feel easier…more natural…life-giving…life-changing.
So what? We are on a mission for God! We want to enable evangelism on three levels: in the church, for the people, to the world, by helping us all be transformed to see God’s action at work in our lives and in the our world. Once we meet Jesus on the way, we can’t help but respond! That is the invitation to us all.
Hmm…how? Together, we can continue the work of Jesus in the world. We do that in many ways:
Members from the Evangelism Committee will partner with any congregation to look more closely at where God is leading and how to express the Why of how God is at work in and through us all. We can meet with vestries, committees, or the whole parish to explore all the options.
We can do one on one mentoring with anyone who wants a partner in ministry – clergy or lay – and who wants to be able to share the Good News. Practice makes perfect!
We have gathered and continue to find great resources that your parish can use, everything from letter templates to bulletin inserts to newsletter to ideas about signage and events. No need to reinvent the wheel! Mine these tools for ideas that you can customize for your community.
We are working on some Big Ideas for how we learn to tell our story (or even see it in our own lives) and then lean into where God is taking us. Together, we can help outline a program of discipleship that will help members of your faith community not only feel more empowered, but also have the deep desire to share this Good News.
"finding Inspiration, Strength, and Hope" (fISH) is a workshop designed by the Evangelism Department to help people tell their faith story. We recognize it is not always easy to step into evangelism with the community of faith in your own congregation and thereby invite others into the conversation about a walk in the footsteps of Christ. Each of us often needs some help in telling our story, a story often filled with disappointment, inspiration, challenge, strength, fear and hope. The fISH workshop experience provides simple tools to share stories and to express where each of us are in our journey or to ask and answer questions about our walk with Christ.
The goal of fISH is to help your congregation build confidence to talk in real-world ways about their journey. Our fISH Leadership Team is available to lead your congregation in a Saturday day-long workshop from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Invite Welcome Connect is a ministry of evangelism and congregational empowerment, and it helps churches to become places where genuine connections can happen. By inviting the faith journeys and stories of everyone, the ministry enables deeper journeys of Christian discipleship and the Spirit of Christ to be at the heart of each church's hospitable mission of spreading the Good News.
Like Samuel heard God call, we are ready and willing to say, "Here am I; send me!" Please reach out and contact any one of our Committee members:
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