Spring is here and this season is a great opportunity to reach out to your community and show them God’s love in practical ways. Here are three great outreach projects that are perfect for spring: 1. Free Car Wash This is an effective, practical service. We offer a car wash every week in the summer. [...]
I’m not sure when the term ‘servant evangelism’ first came into play. In the early days of the Vineyard movement, Steve Sjogren was the first voice I heard talking about focusing an entire church community around the idea of serving outsiders through practical, applicable acts of kindness. My Vineyard church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa has [...]
It seemed I had tried it all! From dropping thousands of eggs from a helicopter to sending out what seemed like millions of postcards, but our church was not getting the “results” that everyone else had gotten. I hired coaches and mentors who told me “how” to plant the church. I did everything by the [...]
John Chapman, aka the legendary “Johnny Appleseed” was a missionary who reached out to native Americans in the Ohio Valley in the early 1800s. He Had Simple Tools His primary planting tool was a stick! Do you have a stick? When his current stick wore out he found a new stick. I heard recently through [...]
I have to admit that I used to hate cats. I never understood why someone would want an animal that hides 20 hours of the day and hisses at you the other 4 hours when it decides to grace you with its presence. I see all the “cute” kitten pictures girls post on Facebook and [...]
When I stumbled into Servant Evangelism almost 15 years ago, my life was changed forever. As part of a denomination that was very focused on evangelism, I was a pastor who hated evangelism. But of course, no one could know. So I learned the techniques, went to the training courses, made the phone calls, knocked [...]
No matter how hard you try to come across as a “safe” person to those you reach out to, some will not receive your offer of service.
That is an unalterable reality. But don’t fret. There are some proven steps I’ve found that work well for dealing with harsh people.
Veteran outreach leaders know this – that one of the largest challenges involved in starting or running an ongoing outreach is the commitment factor. In this coaching call on ServeCoach.com we looked at some essential topics related to building commitment among your people including: Launching a Starting Vision Making Your Commitment Understandable Making Your Commitment [...]
No matter how long I do outreach, I am often surprised at how much impact serving others actually has on our own spiritual health. When we feed the poor, or do some small gesture of kindness, not only are we giving them a small taste of the kingdom, we get refreshed spiritually as well. I have heard more than one pastor use the metaphor that we are a conduit or pipeline for God’s grace when we let Him flow through us to others.
I’ve been a proponent of servant evangelism for many years. Our Vineyard church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa is 13 years old and we’ve always had a heart for the type of outreaches that Steve Sjogren first brought to our attention in the Vineyard family back in the late 1980’s. Over the years we’ve done free [...]