I interview Kevin Cunningham, outreach pastor of a church in Nashua New Hampshire, a town of about 80,000.

Christmas Outreach

Each year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the city turns Main Street into a walking district.

Close to 30,000 people from across New England visit downtown Nashua to officially kick-off the Christmas season.

The evening starts with a procession from City Hall to Railroad Square where the City’s official Christmas tree is lit.

Much of the downtown is closed to traffic for the evening, allowing strollers to enjoy the live entertainment, sample offerings from street vendors, dine in downtown’s fine restaurants and do holiday shopping at specialty shops and boutiques.

Promoting Special Christmas Events

This church used this event to promote two Christmas activities.

• Group’s A Night in Bethlehem—converting our church grounds into a first-century experience of what Bethlehem must have looked like on the first Christmas.
• Our Christmas Eve service—that will feature a lot of drama vignettes, special music and group carol singing.

Conversation Starters

Kevin also shares what was on their table as giveaways.  Click on the images to see larger versions of the Business Cards they gave away.

1. Bibles
2. New Testaments
3. Business card-sized invites to our Christmas activities
4. Booklets (from Outreach Marketing) with the Christmas Story and a message for non Christ-followers that presented the Gospel and a message for believers who are not in fellowship.
5. Gary Rohrmayer’s Your Spiritual Journey pamphlets (Read my review of Spiritual Conversations)
6. CDs from a Marriage Event with authors and speakers Drs. Paul & Virginia Friesen on how to “Be Part of a Great Marriage.”
7. Candy Canes

Intentional Conversations about Faith

Besides marketing the Christmas activities, the volunteer team was also intentional about faith sharing conversations.  Make sure you listen in to see how they held normal conversations during this Christmas outreach.

Read 7 Habits for Highly Effective Personal Evangelism to get a feel for what this might look like.

They included

• a parent needing help raising a middle schooler and looking for a church with a good youth group.
• A couple planning to get married and looking for a church
• A number of people who had drifted away from church over the years and sensing the need to get back on track.
• Some were believers—others from a ritualistic background and looking for something more meaningful.

Showing Church Hospitality to First Time Visitors

About midway through the interview with Kevin, we talk about hospitality issues:

• How did you prepare your volunteers for this table?
• How are you preparing your hospitality and church member to receive them and make intentional connections?
• Plans are you making to help your first time visitors return after the events are over

What would you do differently?

Finally, Kevin shares some practical principles he learned doing this kind of outreach and the one thing he would do differently.

• Find areas or events that already exist in your area where you can generate interest.
• Don’t say no for people.  Even though our town’s event is called the “Winter Holiday Stroll” they included a section for non-profits that we were able to take advantage of.
• Start early.  Our application had to be filed by mid-September.

Podcast of Christmas Outreach

Puzzled why your church visitors don’t come back?

• Maybe your members talk to each other and ignore the first time visitor.
• Maybe your volunteers are not serving the needs of visitors.
• Maybe your first time visitors don’t feel welcomed.

In this audio sample from the Create a Culture of Hospitality MP3 download, I share other evidences that your church hospitality is not working.

Church hospitality systems break down where there is lack of vision for welcoming the visitors that God brings you.  Proper vision casting will help your whole church increase it’s impact.

“Your emphasis on prayer will make a big impact for us!” C. Parsons

“So many fantastic ideas on how to be more welcoming” – R. Wade.

“Practical suggestions to address vital issues”

Listen to this Audio Sample

The Rest of the Talk.

In this 79 minute audio MP3, pastors, hospitality ministry leaders, and volunteers will learn:

• 4 Reasons Church Visitors Don’t Return and Which Ones You Can Fix
• Evidence of Poor Church Hospitality Practices
• Meeting the Expectations of Your Church Visitors
• The Importance of Initiative in Greeting Church Visitors
• What to do when the worship service is over.
• 14 Ways to Cast a Hospitality Vision
• How to Pray With Your Church Visitors
• 7 Next Steps for the Next 30 days.

There was SO much in this recording. The biggest thing for me was hearing the importance of what our church can do when the service is over to initiate conversation with newcomers. You also gave us practical ideas that we could easily implement.

We have got quite good systems in place for before the service, but its after the service that we really need to work on. Thanks for pointing out some ideas for what we might do – Renda W, New Zealand.

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In today’s podcast, I talk with a pastor whose little country church is

• bringing the good news of Jesus AND
• serving the community AND
• leading people to faith in Christ.

I interview Pastor Laura Long, from a small country church in an economically depressed area of Marion NC, Clinchfield Presbyterian Church.

It’s clear that Pastor Laura loves the community, loves the people, and the church has had a great ministry of presence in the community.

Recently, they’ve been engaging the community as a church, and transforming lives one at a time.

If you think your church is too small to make a difference, listen in today’s show.

In this podcast you’ll hear

• the community setting of church.
• the food program that connects them with their community.
• how prayer plays a role
• the intentional listening and response to spiritual needs.
• the impact of community service on your church

Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of teaching on engaging your community and sharing your faith while serving your community.

There are some great books on the subject such as

• AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church (Exponential Series)
• The Externally Focused Church
• Externally Focused Quest
• A New Kind of Big: How Churches of Any Size Can Partner to Transform Communities
• Growing the Church in the Power of the Holy Spirit: Seven Principles of Dynamic Cooperation

and it’s a theme that I’ve touched on every now and then on my website and in the podcast feed.

Given that many of our sign-ups were just at the beginning stages of using social media, Paul outlines how social media fits in church communication and some basic checklists about how to use social media.

Video

EvangelismCoach.org webinar series on the basics of social media for church planters and pastors. Introduction to tools and reasons for social media.

Follow us on Facebook

Click through the badge and choose “Like” to help spread the word.

Resources

Slides as a PDF:

Paul’s company will host your website and help you update it: http://tinyurl.com/ecoachweb

Spanish Resources (after a question came up)

• despuesdeldomingo.com
• http://www.newgenerationfellowship.net

Listener suggestions for a tool for getting twitter/Facebook Integration

• https://www.facebook.com/RSS.Graffiti

Tip Jar

If you wish, Use this wish list from Amazon to put something on my Kindle. . .. .

This is for those who want to share in the ministry this way.

We don’t want to be known as the church in the hotel.

We want to be known as the church that heals families.

We don’t want people to come so we can grow the church.

We want people to come and give themselves away in the community.

I’ve been reading some great books on these themes, and it recently inspired the sermon that is the podcast attached to this episode:

• Evangelism Where You Live: Engaging Your Community
• AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church (Exponential Series)
• The Externally Focused Quest: Becoming the Best Church for the Community

Main points

1.  The dangers when the focus is only come.

2.  The call to go and give yourselves away.

3.  The blessings God give when you go

Podcast

To download: Use the right click of your mouse, and choose save target as, or save as. . .

Books Mentioned:

Conspiracy of Kindness: A Unique Approach to Sharing the Love of Jesus
The Externally Focused Quest: Becoming the Best Church for the Community
Spiritual Conversations (Gary’s Book)

Videos Replay via Vimeo

Part 1: http://www.vimeo.com/15424976

Part 2: http://www.vimeo.com/16062761

Part 3: http://www.vimeo.com/17155063

Mp3 Downloads

Right Click to download.

Evangelism Training Study Course

For a home study course on personal evangelism, consider my course:

Would you pitch in to cover the cost?

He’s written a couple of books, one of which has found it’s way into my recommended list during my personal evangelism confereces: Hitchhikers Guide to Evangelism.

He’s even got a website by that name, geared towards helping churches with transformation.

If you haven’t already done so, make sure you have grabbed the podcast feed at the Evangelismcoach.org website or via Itunes and you’ll get future episodes.

Reaching Men for Christ

Today’s theme is about reaching men and what churches can do to reach out to them.

Bill’s got some great things to share, so we’ll have a discussion about that today.

1.  The problem: Why churches are not reaching men.
2.  The solutions: What can churches do to reach men?
2.  Next Steps: What are some ideas of next action steps pastors can do to change something about reaching men?

If you are enjoying these podcasts, I need your help – share them with your social network to help get the word out that they exist.

Twenty 20 Vision

Chip and I have been friends since we ministered together in college back in the late 80s and early 90s, when we experienced a move of God on our campus that has since produced pastors, church planters and missionaries.

Chip’s particular ministry has evolved into leadership training and life planning for pastors. I’m glad to call him a friend.

A few weeks ago, Chip and I were talking about personal evangelism for pastors.  I’m developing a new seminar based around this theme, because the goal of our ministry is to help pastors be effective in personal evangelism, as well as lead personal evangelism in their congregations.

If you were to imagine evangelism as a field, today’s focus is narrowed down to one part of how evangelism happens: out of the overflow of your own relationship with Christ.

Listen in as Chip shares about nurturing the pastor’s personal relationship with Christ.

• Area number 1: Personal spirituality
• Area number 2: Soul care
• Area number 3: Sins of Omission

At the end, Chip gives us some great practical action steps and a much needed message for pastors to hear.   After I did this podcast with him, I did some of those action steps and feel better.  It was a personally needed call to action.

Next steps

If you are enjoying these podcasts, I need your help – share them with your social network using some of the buttons below.

If you haven’t already done so, make sure you have grabbed the EvangelismCoach podcast feed at the Evangelismcoach.org website or via Itunes and you’ll get future episodes.

Listen to the EvangelismCoach Podcast

Book Resources

Chip mentions a few related books:

• “Whispers of His Power” -Amy Carmichael
• “The Pursuit of God” -A.W. Tozer
• “A Long Obedience” –Eugene Peterson
• “Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership” –Ruth Haley Barton
• “Leading on Empty” –Wayne Cordeiro
• “God Isn’t In A Hurry” –Warren Wiersbe

I’ve asked him to talk about

• what he does for evangelism as a pastor,
• how he does evangelism as a pastor, and
• some of what he’s learn about being a pastor and out in the community.

Today, our guest is a Harley Davidson lover and Nazerene Pastor from Alaska, MJ Quick.

MJ and I have been friends since I visited Alaska in 2008 to teach on personal evangelism, and he has since become the graphics guy for my products. He is the founding pastor of Souljourn Community Church of the Nazarene, a growing congregation in Anchorage that meets on the University of Anchorage Alaska Campus as well as in Home Churches around the city.

Listen in as I ask him:

1. What does evangelism look like in your life as a pastor?
2. What are some habits and practices that you’ve taken on to have that frequency of conversation
3. Share with us a typical conversational example:
4. In summary, what are some ideas of next action steps pastors can do to change something?

Just recently, I met via phone with an evangelism committee that was just getting started.  They were wanting to know what a church evangelism committee does.

Other churches might be at the place of wondering

• how to start or establish an evangelism committee at church
• What are the responsibilities of an evangelism committee?
• Duties of an evangelism committee
• or ideas for an evangelism committee
• What is the role of the hospitality committee at church?
• What is the role of the evangelism committee at the church?

What does an evangelism committee do?

The video I’ve included here begins to provide three areas of potential focus for evangelism committee chairpersons or members.

Some evangelism committees focus on

• church hospitality issues,
• church marketing issues, or
• visitor assimilation issues.

The direction of this video for is on personal evangelism leadership, rather than those above.

Three Areas of Focus for Church Evangelism Committees

In case you are just reading, rather than watching the video, here are the three points

1. Personal Evangelism accountability.
2. Providing training in personal evangelism for the congregation
3. Leading congregational evangelism activities as part of your regular outreaches.

Resources Mentioned in the Work of the Evangelism Committee:

Got Style?: Personality-Based Evangelism, Jeffrey Johnson

Fear Free Evangelism 5 CD Audio Course, EvangelismCoach

Podcast Version of the Work of the Evangelism Committee

I’ve also made this a podcast for the feed.

Let me ask you this?

After watching this video, what is your #1 question about how to lead an evangelism committee?  Fill out the comment form below.

PS.  If you haven’t already done so, grab your free copy of “Avoid First time Visitor Nightmares“

Church press releases are remarkably simple to do once you understand some basic points and setup a distribution system for your church press release.

How 1st PC Uses Press Releases

I recently spoke with Richard Hong, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Englewood NJ, about what they have learned over the last few years in using press releases to build up and shape the reputation of their church in the neighborhood.

Churches has asked me how to add some effective marketing to their outreach campaigns, and press releases are one way you can garner free publicity for your church.

Press releases are more than the little program announcements that some churches still make in the Saturday paper.

Regular press releases by your church can call attention to your church and increase your church’s visibility and reputation in your community.  This may help attract people to your church who want to participate in your programs, and hopefully grow in their walk with Christ.

Church Press Release Interview

I’ve seen some awful church press releases, and some good ones, so I’ve asked Richard to share

• what their church is doing,
• how they do it, and
• lessons they’ve learned from using press releases

Listen in as Richard shares

• on different types of press releases
• what makes for useless press releases
• how his church distributes press releases
• How they get free professional videos made
• How to effectively position your press release in community newspapers.
• The nuts and bolts of formatting a press release for your church.

Finally, he wraps it up with some specific action steps you can take if you want to develop a press release strategy for your church.

Grab the EvangelismCoach.org podcast feed to get more podcasts automatically

Image source: MorgueFile

The sharing of your faith in casual conversation with one other person.

This 1-1 interaction scares a lot of people for a variety of reasons.

Some of you have experienced this seminar and have found the freedom to share your faith that you hadn’t found before.

I’ve released a new product, that takes my 6 hour workshop and condenses it to 5 hour CD set that focuses on this evangelism.

• Find the Key to your Passion – what motivates you to share.
• The Role of the Holy Spirit in Evangelism
• 6 Principles for Fear Free Evangelism
• Telling your testimony and the Gospel Story.

Here is a free 13 minute sample “6 Obstacles to Effective Evangelism”

Released June 15 2010

Click on the banner to read more.

I pray on the principle that wine knocks the cork out of a bottle. There is an inward fermentation, and there must be a vent. ~Henry Ward Beecher

People find it helpful to have a structure or an outline to use.

(Not sure how to create a prayer list to help you with that?  Read: Make a prayer list of friends.)

So I interviewed Phillip Taylor of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries to give us a prayer outline based on Colossians 4:3-4

And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.

Listen and Download to EvangelismCoach Podcast

Prayer is fundamental to the spiritual rescue business

Three Open Prayer – Life-changing prayer based on Colossians 4:3-4

• “Lord, Open a door.”
• “Lord, open their heart.”
• “Lord, open my mouth.”

Benefits of regular prayer that is focused on evangelism.

• Removes the perceived pressure to make stuff happen.
• Helps the everyday believer recognize the opportunities in front of them to make a difference
• Heightens our awareness of God’s work around us.
• Brings immediate meaning and purpose to our existence
• Raises awareness of our own personal holiness.

I pray on the principle that wine knocks the cork out of a bottle.  There is an inward fermentation, and there must be a vent.  ~Henry Ward Beecher

I’ve often wondered what triggered such an emotional response in her that she’d break all protocol and wipe the feet of Jesus with her tears. (Read more about the prostitute of Luke 7 in my sermon notes: Who do you see?)

In my evangelism teaching, I often ask

How can I find that same passion that leads to the spontaneous worship of Jesus?

What triggered that passion in this prostitute?

In an earlier post on a wrestling with a definition of evangelism, I noted:

I see Jesus asking questions of the heart as in the story of the Good Samaritan, or talking with the woman at the well.

I see Jesus forgiving people.

A prostitute who hears “come unto me all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest” finds forgiveness and anoints the feet of Jesus with perfume and her tears.  She was forgiven much, she loves much.  So much that she breaks all sorts of social protocol and wrecks someone’s dinner.

To a woman caught in adultery – “Who condemns you, neither do I.”  To a teenager broken over sex outside of marriage – there is hope in that story that she or he can be restored to God.

I see Jesus seeking after people, Zacchaeus in a tree.  With a little sanctified imagination, I can imagine that Matthew was at that dinner as well, a life transformed as a witness to Zacchaeus.

The four points we typically scripted outline are not recorded in any whole outline in the teachings of Jesus.  He invites well known sinners to come and see, come and follow.  . . .

I wonder how we as Christians can recapture that sense of invitation: “come and see this man” (Samaritan), “Come and see” (Nathaniel), “Come unto Me” (Jesus).  How as a church can we create that place where people can investigate, explore, and discover?

Sermon on the Prostitute of Luke 7

Novel Evangelism.

It’s a bridge building strategy to help the believers in your church recognize and participate in more conversational opportunities about people’s spiritual journey.

I’m familiar with using the same ideas in popular music, and movies, so the idea isn’t new.

Listen to my friend Bill Feree talk about how he’s doing this in a Sunday school Class.

Key takeaways:

• Book club discussion group centered on faith themes in popular literature
• Implemented as a Sunday School class.
• How to structure and lead the class
• How people learn to talk about their faith by discussing books.
• Examples of faith sharing conversations that started from a popular book.
• How this class has raised the evangelistic temperature of its group.

At any Fear Free Evangelism seminar, or Evangelism Dunamis, this text from Acts 8 serves as the foundational teaching of recognizing how to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in personal evangelism.

The key take away is

• Recognize when a person expresses their spiritual thirst (read What is Spiritual Thirst?)
• How to Listen to the Holy Spirit.

Here is a sample teaching to listen to.  Click below to stream it.  Or grab the podcast feed

Here is the MP3 from Blog Talk Radio. Give a few extra seconds for the player to load.

They chose to take their regular Sunday service and move it to the front lawn of the their church — going to the streets, so to speak.

Their church has done several short term mission trips, and this idea came out of wondering why can’t they do some of that same compassionate work in their local neighborhood.

The Prayer Station

One additional feature of their missional event was the prayer station (Follow the link to see how to do a prayer station).

Staffed with elders trained in compassionate prayer, this was a place where people could unload their burdens and have someone pray with them.

People self-selected to sit at the table.

This is a place where evangelism conversations can happen normally, as people express their spiritual thirst. (See What is Spiritual Thirst?)

This is also a place to hear about community needs that might be under the radar.

Listen to How to Setup a Prayer Station

Alan and I did a phone conversation about how to setup the prayer station.  Listen here:

In this Evangelismcoach podcast episode, I talk with Jeffrey Johnson about every evangelism style has a place in the ministry of evangelism.

The styles (with one of the characteristics of each style) are:

• assertive (confident)
• analytical(logical)
• story-telling (engaging)
• relational (conversational)
• invitational (hospitable)
• incarnational (compassionate)

In 6 chapters of Got Style? Personality Based Evangelism, Johnson maps out a biblical example of each style, and speaks of strengths and weaknesses of each.  This goes way beyond the “this is the best or only way of evangelism” most books focus on.

We’ll be talking about how personal evangelism fits into the local church.  The big problem that we see with most evangelism training is that it is divorced from connecting people to the local church.  How can we help the church support the work of evangelism?

But what about our hearer?

The person we are witnessing to?

Can we help shape our gospel presentation to their need, to the language of their heart, to their spiritual thirst?

Listen to how Dr. Brad Long has found some insights into matching up the gospel to a person’s need and heart language in the next installment of the EvangelismCoach.org webinar series, this time with Brad Long.

Webinar Resources:

Brad’s Books and Blog:

• Prayer That Shapes the Future
• Passage Through the Wilderness: A Journey of the Soul
• Receiving the Power: Preparing the Way for The Holy Spirit
• Dr. Brad Long’s Blog — videos, testimonies of PRMI’s ministry

Replay

Audio:

Video Replay:

You will need the most recent version of the Adobe Flash Player to see the replay.

Download the Slides as a PDF: Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

Download the Narrative as a PDF: Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

Who is Brad Long?

In 1988 while a missionary in Taiwan, Brad Long received a call “to an international ministry of renewal, advancing the gospel of Jesus Christ worldwide.”

Since that time, he has been called to a number of nations where his role has been primarily equipping pastors and lay people in the gifts and power of the Holy Spirit.

He is the Executive Director of Presbyterian Reformed Ministries International, based in Black Mountain North Carolina. He’s been a friend of mine since 1997 and we are working on some new evangelism material together.

He has authored and co-authored books on worldview, the filling of the Holy Spirit, healing ministry, and soon to be released “Growing Your Church in the Power of the Holy Spirit.”

See Brad here:

Tonight I was asked by a guy in our church
to be a “Greeter” which means
I’d shake people’s hands as they come in.
(Twitter user)

Being a greeter is much more than shaking hands as people walk in the door of your church during worship services.

So many churches simply recruit warm bodies to fill the role of church greeter without much

• thought,
• training, or
• planning

into the role that greeters have come to play in American churches.

Greeters are the front line of your church’s hospitality ministry.

They are a vital part of your organized friendliness that helps members and visitors connect.

But how do you train greeters?

(There are only so may ways to say “Good Morning”.)

What does a church greeter training meeting look like?

What resources might be available to help with recruiting and organizing greeters?

Author of The Work of the Greeter, Paige Lanier Chargois has found some insights from her research and experience across the United states and 47 different countries.

She’ll join us in the next installment of the EvangelismCoach.org webinar series

Thank you for providing this valuable service. I attend a smaller church and there were several points that we will be able to work on for an improved more complete welcome to those who are seeking to worship together with their brothers and sisters. Thank you. I look forward to going over the presentation power point with our group next.

Diane

Webinar Resources:

• The Work of the Greeter
• Certain Women Called By Christ:  Biblical Realities for Today
• Church Greeters 101, order ebook online
• Back to School Season Greeter Training webinar DVD or Download (order online)

New Church Greeter Training DVD for purchase

I’ve recorded  an on-line training event for

• First time greeters and Ushers
• Potential Greeter and Usher Volunteers
• Hospitality ministry organizers who want a review.
• Current Greeters and Ushers

to help you give that last minute training.

You’ll

• Sharpen your own skills to greet
• Receive a fresh vision for effective greeting
• Overcome the awkwardness some new greeters feel
• Learn some helpful things to say to make small talk with guests.

Read more:

http://www.evangelismcoach.org/store/back-to-school-season-greeter-training/

Replay of Pagie’s Church Greeter webinar

Audio Podcast:

Video Replay:

You will need the most recent version of the Adobe Flash Player to see the replay.

Download the Slides as a PDF: Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

Who is Paige Lanier Chargois?

Her first solo book is Certain Women Called By Christ:  Biblical Realities for Today which is based on the Gospel of Luke 8:1-3.

Her second book, The Work of the Greeter was released in June ’09.  It provides the biblical basis of hospitality along with practical directions and instructive information about launching or sustaining a congregation’s greeters ministry.  It is part of Judson’s book series covering every task in the church.

Paige has served as Director of Membership and Maturity with the Saint Paul’s Baptist Church in Richmond VA at which she developed the structure to accomplish the Pastor’s vision for small groups.  More recently she has served as the Pastor of First Baptist Church in Franklin, VA.

Dr. Chargois teaches theology, world religions, and missions at Richmond Virginia Seminary.  She is a member of the Saint Paul’s church family, and continues to serve the Kingdom of our Lord as a church consultant, leadership trainer, workshop leader, and Bible teacher along with being tapped to preach at churches and retreats.

• They are embarrassing.
• They are clumsy.
• They are hard to keep up to date.
• It was designed 10 years ago in HTML and uses expensive software.

What if you could fix that

• for free (do it yourself) or
• for a small fee and outsource a new setup and then upkeep yourself?

Expert Interview

I’ve arranged a conversation with the three experts I look to when it comes to my website.

I knew absolutely nothing 2 years ago, and what you see here at EvangelismCoach.org I learned in under 30 days.

In fact, I got it in under 2 weeks and I still run the entire website all by myself.

It’s really easy, the software is free, and the learning curve was short.  I don’t know a thing about graphic design or HTML or PHP (well, now I know very little).

If you can write, and hit a publish button, you can make an easy to use and keep current church website.

I interview

• Yvon Prehn of Effective Church Communications, who has lots of videos for the do it yourself type
• my personal guru, Neal Locke, who will do simple migrations or start-ups for you
• Paul Steinbrueck of OurChurch.com, who can do more complex websites and custom designs

RESOURCES

Blogging Resources I recommend:

One book I recommend if you already have a blog and need to learn how to improve it is 31 days to a Better Blog.

It’s 19.95 and will give you 31 practical exercises to grow the reach of your blog and give you ideas of the HOW to write and promote content on your blog.

Yvon gave us some awesome ideas on what needs to go on a website.  This book will help you put it in a way that is useful.

Order your copy of 31 days to a Better Blog

Here are the church website resources from our guests:

Paul Steinbrueck at OurChurch.Com:

Twitter: @Paulsteinbrueck
OurChurch.Com – Comprehensive Web Solutions for Christians

OurChurch.Com web design, hosting, & marketing services: http://OurChurch.Com
Christian Web Trends Blog: http://blog.ourchurch.com
Church Website Tips page: http://blog.ourchurch.com/church-website-tips/

Yvon Prehn

Twitter: @YvonPrehn
website: www.effectivechurchcom.com
storefront: www.lulu.com/yvonprehn
YouTube channel: www.YouTube.com/yvonprehn

Neal Locke

Twitter: @MstrLocke
my website:  http://www.mrlocke.net
a consortium I sometimes work for:  http://pokayokedesign.net
facebook:  facebook.com/mstrlocke
Second Life:  Neill Loxingly

Wolfgang’s Site:

www.StarFishPortal.net.

We invite you to download the electronic booklet The Starfish Vision, a pdf file, get either infected with a vision that maybe either completely new to you or, more likely, puts words to something that has already captured you. Later, you can always go find out other digital resources of a rather explosive kind at the Starfish download page.

Related Books

(Click the download button to download the whole bibliography)

• The Rabbit and the Elephant: Why Small Is the New Big for Today’s Church
• Simply Church
• Revolution
• Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices
• Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions: Why Children Should Be Your Church’s #1 Priority
• The Seven Faith Tribes: Who They Are, What They Believe, and Why They Matter
• Revolutionary Parenting: What the Research Shows Really Works
• The Power of Vision: Discover and Apply God’s Vision for Your Life & Ministry
• An Army of Ordinary People
• Getting Started: A Practical Guide to House Church Planting
• Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens
• Organic Leadership: Leading Naturally Right Where You Are
• Search & Rescue: Becoming a Disciple Who Makes a Difference
• Nexus: The World House Church Movement Reader
• The Global House Church Movement
• The Church Comes Home
• Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity
• Jesus Has Left the Building
• Megashift: Igniting Spiritual Power
• The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21 Century Church
• Houses that Change the World
• The House Church Book: Rediscover the Dynamic, Organic, Relational, Viral Community Jesus Started
• Houses that Change the World
• Starting a House Church

That’s part of the advantage of the internet, which enables travel free distant learning.

The Lesson Vault

Josh has written and continues to produce question sheets.  You can purchase a subscription as an individual, or an annual subscription for your church.

• Purchase the LessonVault subscription (10% discount code: 7001)
• You can see the Table of Contents to all the Vault Lessons at www.joshhunt.com/sunday-school.htm

Annual church subscriptions (as of this writing) are $199 for the whole year.  Save nearly $20 with the coupon code.

Use the code during the checkout process.

Books

Josh has written several good books.

The one featured in our webinar is You Can Double Your Class in Two Years or Less.

Order your copy direct from Amazon.

As you prepare for your fall programs, is your first impressions ministry in order?  Buy and download my book How to Welcome Church Visitors.  You can start putting those ideas into place immediately after download.

Other Books Mentioned:

• Sticky Church (Leadership Network Innovation Series)
• Bowling Alone : The Collapse and Revival of American Community
• Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can, Too
• Making Vision Stick (Leadership Library)
• Unleashing the Ideavirus

Downloads

• PDF: Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

Connections

• Main Website: JoshHunt.com
• Twitter: JoshHuntNM
• Ning Site: SundaySchoolNing (You’ll have to create an account).  All the videos Josh Mentioned are on here.

The next webinar is on September 10 with Wolfgang Simson.   Members of my newsletter list will receive the announcement when the registration page is ready.

Replay

Listen to the Podcast Version.

[Readers by RSS Feed: You may need to click through to see the video]

Use coupon code 7001 in the checkout process at JoshHunt.com to get 10% off.

Thanks to Paul Steinbrueck at OurChurch.Com for his help in making this conversion happen.

Note: The breathing over Josh disappears about a few minutes into the webinar, I had a supersensitive microphone.

Based on a survey that I’ve done on church greeters and hospitality issues, one of the biggest issues ask me is

• how to get your first time church visitors to fill out a connection card.
• What is the best way to get church visitor contact information?
• What is the best way for churches to gather information on visitors?
• How to use a church visitor contact card

All church visitor assimilation or first time church visitor follow-up processes begin with this information.

Yet so many of you are having difficulty getting the information from your first time visitors to your church.

An Expert Interview

Listen in as I interview Yvon Prehn of www.effectivechurchcom.com about how to get church visitor information cards filled out.

Based on some survey results I’ve done, it seems that getting church visitor contact information is an important question.

Yvon spends time answering questions on

• how to format visitor contact cards,
• how to get church visitor cards filled out, and
• what to do with church visitors contact information afterwords.

Church Visitor Contact Information Podcast

Listen to the whole interview on how to get church visitor contact information here (Feed Readers or Email readers will have to click through to the website).

Yvon’s book “Connection cards” is available for instant download after purchase at http://www.effectivechurchcom.com

You should get it. (I recommend products that I have used).

HitchHiker’s Guide to Evangelism Webinar Resources

http://www.evangelismcoach.org/2009/hitchhikers-guide-follow-up

There were some technical glitches right at the beginning (about 90 seconds in. Recording resumed after fix)

HitchHiker’s Guide to Evangelism Webinar Recording

[Readers by RSS Feed: You may need to click through to see the video]

HitchHiker’s Guide to Evangelism Webinar Podcast