ALPHARETTA, Ga. – The evangelism team at the North American Mission Board (NAMB) announced the development of a new resource designed to help pastors create a culture of evangelism.
“This new kit is designed to assist pastors and ministry leaders in creating a lasting evangelistic culture in their churches,” said Tim Dowdy, vice president of evangelism at NAMB. “The kit isn’t a campaign with a beginning and an end, rather it is focused on key elements for developing an evangelistic culture so that the DNA of the church is continuously centered on making disciples and fulfilling the Great Commission.”
The first NAMB Evangelism Kit a church orders will be free of charge and can be preordered through NAMBevangelism.com. They will be shipped mid-August. You can preview the kit now, with a virtual course related to the NAMB Evangelism Kit available online at the same website.
Within the kit is a cyclical, four-step process — examine, embrace, engage and encourage — and includes videos and assessments that enable a pastor to evaluate whether and how they are prioritizing evangelism personally and corporately.
“The first step, examine, begins by asking the pastor to take a serious look at how he is doing,” Dowdy said. “After all, a drowning person probably isn’t focused on saving anyone else. If pastors are drowning spiritually, relationally or vocationally, then they will likely be focused on keeping their head above water rather than on evangelism and helping others come to know Jesus.”
From there, churches are encouraged to embrace their communities, develop a plan for getting into their community and then embrace the challenge of leading the church to do the difficult work of evangelism.
“You will never reach your community if you barely know your community,” said JJ Washington, NAMB’s national director of personal evangelism. “Maybe you knew your community 20 years ago, but you’ve not kept up with changes that have taken place. A church must be consistently embracing its community in order to know how to create a plan for sharing the Gospel.”
The NAMB Evangelism Kit then walks a pastor through how his congregation can best share the Gospel by first preparing people to engage in conversations, practical assistance during a Gospel conversation and designing an appropriate follow-up plan once the Gospel has been shared.
“Many Christians want to be part of sharing the Gospel; they just don’t know how to begin these conversations,” said Catherine Renfro, NAMB’s national director of women’s evangelism. “Equipping people with practical ways to start Gospel conversations and teaching them to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit will give them the courage and confidence they need to begin engaging people with the Gospel.”
The fourth step focuses on encouraging the congregation, doing so intentionally, strategically and visibly. Pastors will discover practical tips for instilling courage into a local congregation that will cultivate an environment where evangelism is expected and celebrated by the church.
“Once a church walks through these four steps, the idea is that the cycle restarts,” said Dowdy, “and a church is perpetually going through the cycle — examine, embrace, engage and encourage — until evangelism is ingrained in the life of the pastor and the church.”
The NAMB Evangelism Kit is available for preorder at NAMBevangelism.com.
(EDITOR’S NOTE – Brandon Elrod writes for the North American Mission Board. Daryn Sinclair with Send Relief contributed to this report.)
