“2012: The Year of Outreach”


Can you believe 2012 is upon us already? If you’ve been keeping up with the Bible readings, you’re on the final stretch, reading through the strange book of Revelation and crossing the finish line for the Year of the Bible. I hope you’ve been able to do what Peter wrote in his letter: “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 3:18a)
 Perhaps it’s fitting that we’re reading Revelation as we anticipate the year 2012. All of us are probably aware of the famous Mayan calendar, which predicts the end will come this year. It’s not just the Mayans who are anticipating this year. According to Wikipedia, “New age interpretation of this transition is that this date marks the start of time in which Earth and its inhabitants may undergo a positive physical or spiritual transformation, and that 2012 may mark the beginning of a new era.[5]”



While 2012 might be the year of the end for some, I’m praying something similar to the new agers: “that 2012 may mark the beginning of a new era” at St. Paul’s. That new era will be marked by these words: The Year of Outreach.



One of the goals we set as a congregation was that we would implement an evangelism system.



What is evangelism? The word evangelism literally means “good message” or good news. Here are two “pretty good” definitions of evangelism from the Lutheran tradition:



“EVANGELISM IS APPLYING THE EVANGEL (GOSPEL) TO THE HEARTS OF PEOPLE, TO WIN THE UNSAVED FOR CHRIST, TO KEEP THE BELIEVER IN CHRIST, TO RECALL THE BACKSLIDER TO CHRIST, AND TO SEND THE BELIEVER FORTH A WITNESS FOR CHRIST.”


—THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH



“EVANGELISM IS ONE BEGGAR TELLING ANOTHER BEGGAR WHERE TO FIND BREAD.”


—MARTIN LUTHER



What is a system? Think of system as an acrostic. A S.Y.S.T.E.M. is any ongoing process that Saves You Stress, Time, Energy and Money. The council’s hope is to implement this ongoing process that will make evangelism easy and multipronged not only for 2012, but for years to come.





In the book, Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can Too, the authors state: “A multipronged approach acknowledges that there is no ‘silver bullet’ when it comes to reaching people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The days of ‘Lone Ranger’ evangelism are a thing of the past.” In other words, the days of outsourcing evangelism to the pastor or the stadium-filling evangelist are over. They continue, “Developing an effective evangelistic strategy requires stages, helping people move from the ranks of the inactive and unreached to being active followers of Jesus Christ.”



This obviously doesn’t happen overnight. Like they said, this requires stages.


The first stage is based on when the disciples first believed they had found the Messiah early on in John’s Gospel:



Philip said to Nathanael, “Come and see.” (John 1:46 ESV)



(We’ll talk about the second stage, “Go and do” in next month’s article.)


Remember what we talked about last month: according to one research report "82% of the unchurched are likely to attend worship if invited" (LifeWay Research, http://backtochurch.com/participate).


Some of you are imagining some of your unchurched friends and acquaintances coming to worship, and you can’t see it happening because worship will be such a foreign experience. One way I’m going to try to help you is from the pulpit.


We’re going to experiment with what I call a “Missional Lectionary.” The traditional lectionary was designed to tell the story of Jesus in a way that coincided with the changing of the seasons. It also assumed an agrarian culture. Three or four readings were read publicly because until the modern period, the common people did not have copies of the scriptures to read on their own. The traditional lectionary assumes Christendom—that is, it was developed in an era where the Christian story is well known among the people.


The Missional Lectionary assumes little familiarity with the story of the Bible. Not only that, this kind of lectionary presupposes that non-Christians today are very intimidated about visiting a Christian worship service. However, it takes into account the three times that God or church might come into their stream of consciousness: 1) Back-to-School Time; 2) Post Christmas/New Year’s Break (studies show that early February is when there is a spike in attendance of non-Christians); and 3) Easter. (Nelson Searcy, Launch: Starting a New Church from Scratch, p. 177-118)


During these time periods I will preach on scripture and topics that non-church-going people might care about and tell the story within that framework. For instance, this year around back-to-school time, the fall will be saturated with media coverage of politics and the presidential race. I’m proposing a series called, “The Politics of Jesus: Was Jesus Liberal or Conservative?” In the weeks leading up to this series, we’ll give you invitational cards to make it easier to invite people to worship. After these “attractional” kinds of messages, we will do other messages designed to deepen our knowledge of God as we grow to be His disciples.


This doesn’t mean we’ll throw the baby out with the bathwater. We will still observe the traditional seasons and have Lenten services, etc. It’s just one step we’ll take to help you invite your friends and say, “Come and see.”


Lord, help us your believers become disciples who: love unconditionally; listen compassionately; speak truthfully; act justly; endure patiently; forgive mercifully; give generously; serve selflessly; invite constantly; pray fervently; witness unashamedly; and live worthily.


God be with you all as you seek to grow in your love for and obedience to Jesus!


Happy New Year!


Pastor Charlie