servantevangelism.com

Several years ago I remember hearing of the news story about someone in Cincinnati who was following around the meter maid, pumping in change to parking meters before they could write a ticket. She was arrested. Little did I know she was doing for Christ. She was doing Servant Evangelism. As you may have already guessed. I'm hot on Servant Evangelism (SE). If your church isn't doing any SE ministry, I'm asking you to give it some serious consideration. It's not the new program that is going to fix all your church woes. It's not a program. You won't magically double your church attendance this year. But you might positively impact how the unchurched thinks of a church and Christians. NOT CHARITY. SE is not about charity or giving a hand out to an impoverished person. You may end up giving a needed something to a person who is desperately in need but the point is to do the SE project in such a generous, kind, loving way that it demonstrates God's love to the recipient. In that way SE is sacramental. Every person rich or poor needs to experience God's love and that is the emphasis of SE -- not charity. NOT ABOUT CHURCH GROWTH: Wouldn't it be great if our church grew from our evangelistic efforts? Doing an SE project is not about church growth. It's not about doing a PR campaign for your church. It's not about getting the unchurched person to like us or like our church. It's about evangelism and giving a person a genuine experience of God's love. Do an SE project with God's love for the person in front of you in your heart, not with your church's attendance numbers on your mind. Sure a person might receive a cold bottle of water or a fresh cup of coffee, look at the contact card, see the church name and say, "You're just doing this to get me to go to your church." There is a good response to that skepticism: "No. We'd love it if you went to our church but we do this because we want you know that God loves you passionately." It's part of the process of them coming 'one step closer to Christ'. A conversion experience is a process. People don't just wake up one day in a vacuum and think "Hmph! I think I'll be a Christian." More likely is they have a number of experiences that convince their mind of the truthfulness of the claims of Jesus Christ and their heart experiences His love for them. Not only do they need the Gospel proclaimed and explained to them, they need to see it demonstrated. A conversion is the culmination of experiences that have led a person one step closer to Christ until they surrender their life to Christ. Our culture demands more than words but wants to see a demonstration of God's love in action. SE does that very thing. Liberals & Conservatives working together. One of the things I love about SE is that it allows people from diverse theological perspectives to minister together. Evangelicals, Roman Catholics and Mainline church goers all equally agree that God loves humanity and that His people should demonstrate His love to the world. SE is something we can all do together. NOT ABOUT MANIPULATION. SE is not something we do to be a conversation starter that leads to us manipulating the conversation into praying the sinner's prayer. SE is purely about sharing God's love in a tangible way. Stereotypes. SE is about giving a person an experience of God's love in a tangible way. It's about giving God an open door. It's about changing the spiritual climate. There are about a half dozen significant negative stereotypes of a Christian that a person needs to overcome before s/he will follow Christ. SE effectively helps people over those hurdles. SE doesn't require the person to have an special theological understanding or skills. You don't have to be a long term Christian. You could be a open minded seeker. Can you smile humbly and graciously? Give away a drink? Wash a car? Rake a yard? Buy some one's meal? Leave a big tip? Give away something for free? You probably can. You can do SE. I have a hunch about SE. I can't prove it. But I really think I'm right. I believe you could plant a church by making SE the primary focus of your church life and ministry. Furthermore, I have a hunch that you could fundamentally revitalize a church through implementing a SE culture in a church. One way to get started is just go to the SE site and browse their suggested projects. If you need more help buy: 101 Ways to Reach Your Community, A Handbook for Servant Evangelism, by Steve Sjogren. For $7.00 it is a steal. If you need even more help, there are a host of other resources available at the SE site or call the Vineyard Church in Cincinnati. They will train you. Try it. You have very little to lose.