When you arrive at the office, assembly line, factory, sales room, or shop, there is a process that you follow. Perhaps there is a flow chart hanging on the wall as a reminder. When you were hired, you were trained to reach your mission objective. The processes are created to ensure stability, efficiency, and results. Over time, the process may be tweaked and improved, but you always follow the process.
The same principles that make your company or business successful and help you achieve results as an employee also work in evangelism. There must be a process to accomplish our goals. We have three goals within the Great Commission (teach, baptize, and keep teaching), and we have multiple steps to achieve them. We call these steps, “The Evangelism Model.” Training each member and understanding how all members work together determine success or failure. HTHSOE Training Cards were created to enhance training. Last week, we broke down the model. This week, we want to look at the back side of the card and examine the contact process.
Using the HTHSOE bookmark is one of the most effective ways a congregation can produce contacts. It encourages involvement by asking all members to write down the names of ten people whom they know are lost within their community. Each bookmark is a private list that is kept in each individual’s Bible. While individual prospecting efforts can take place, it is not an actionable list for the congregation. While you should be praying for these contacts, this is not enough to save their souls.
Transitioning from the bookmark to the contact card is the next step. It is done when there is a life-changing moment in the life of a contact. If someone loses a job, gets married, encounters illness, loses a loved one, or suffers a personal tragedy of any kind, the church needs to reach out and surround that person with compassion. Each Christian should be willing to submit contact information when someone listed on the bookmark needs help. Once submitted, the name can be transferred from the individual bookmark to the congregational contact list.
The congregational contact list is a vital piece of the process. It provides an actionable target list for the congregation to begin prospecting. If you have no targets, you will never hit the bullseye. This list should be updated and printed weekly, using the contact cards that are submitted each week.
These processes are proving effective. Use these new training cards to help train your members on their responsibilities. Evangelism works best when it is congregational (1 Corinthians 12:14-20). Remember, preachers cannot evangelize by themselves.
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