CHAPTER 1

FAITH SHARING INSERVICE

Let's begin with our analogy of elementary relational evangelism. Elementary,of course, refers to something that is very basic. Elementary relationalevangelism, then, will be fairly easy for us to do. It is something that we arefamiliar with, and it doesn't stretch us too far out of our comfort zone. Inother words, it's a good basic first step in finding and sharing our faith.

Relational evangelism is rooted in our practice of service. Many mainlinechurches across the country are doing an outstanding job of serving persons intheir communities and regions, and across the globe. This service is an importantdemonstration of God's love. It has unmistakable intrinsic value in and ofitself. But very few persons are connected to Jesus Christ and Christ's churchas a result of service alone. Providing food through a pantry is an importantand needed ministry. But rarely will the persons served connect with Christor the church as a result of that service. So, while we love doing good deeds,we are not so good at adding the Good Word to the good deeds. Relationalevangelism will teach us to add the Good Word to the good deed. Let's lookat the difference between service and relational evangelism through service.

GOOD DEED + GOOD WORD = GOOD NEWS

Elementary relational evangelism centers on serving others. It is significantlydifferent from service alone. We can illustrate this best with anextended example. Let's say that this summer you decide that you will againdistribute cold water bottles to persons attending the fair, festival, or celebrationin your community or area. But instead of doing this simply as amatter of service, you decide that this year you're going to do this as activerelational evangelism through service. Instead of just handing out the waterbottles from a booth marked "Shady Creek United Methodist Church," eachwater bottle will have a simple card attached by a rubber band. The cardcommunicates two important messages. The first might read something likethis: "This bottle of cold water is a free gift from your friends at Shady CreekUnited Methodist Church. This is our way of sharing with you and showingyou God's love, because God's love is always free and is available all thetime to everyone, including you." This is the heart of the first importantmessage: God loves you, and that love is free all the time for everyone. Thisis a key component of relational evangelism through service. It must includethe evangel, the "Good News." So the water bottle becomes an example anddemonstration of the Good News of God's love.

Your chicken noodle dinner for missions that you charge for cannot berelational evangelism through service, because it is not free and therefore notan example of God's free love, which is the Good News. Let's be clear on thedistinction between a fundraiser and relational evangelism through service.We advise you to limit your church to no more than two or three fundraisers(if any) a year. It is bad theology to raise money from the very people we aretrying to reach for Jesus Christ in the mission field. This leaves a bad tastein the mouth! The biblical understanding of resourcing the church is simplytithing by those who already believe in Jesus Christ. Fundraising is a civicresponse to a need.

Let's return to the example of the bottled water and examine the secondmessage: "Just like we know that in order to live we need water, we also knowthat to live fully and deeply, we need to be connected to God who loves us.So if you'd like to experience more of God's love in your life, we would like toinvite you to join us in a celebration of God's love in worship this Sunday at10 a.m. at Shady Creek United Methodist Church (corner of Shady and CreekAvenues). Come celebrate God's love with us this Sunday!" Relational evangelismincludes a clear invitation to connect with God and with our church.

In this illustration, the persons we give water to do not know that we aregiving them water in order to show them God's love unless we tell them that'sthe reason. And they don't know that they could experience this God wholoves them unless we tell them. And they also don't know that we would loveto have them join us in worship celebration unless we tell them. We cannotassume that they understand all of this simply because we handed them abottle of cold water. For this to be evangelism, that message has to be communicatedin a clear, simple, and inviting way.

Relational evangelism through service is connecting service to a clearwritten communication of the Good News of God's love. Vineyard ChristianFellowship in Cincinnati, Ohio is a church that has developed an outstandingpractice of relational evangelism through service, with excellent results. SteveSjogren was the pastor of the church when this relational evangelism throughservice was developed. This church practiced a variety of service evangelismprojects on a monthly basis, drawing a significant number of persons to thechurch for worship. Please note that a significant number of people will notcome until we first personally go to meet them where they are. Relationalevangelism through service does exactly this. As a result of this relationalevangelism through service, Vineyard Christian Fellowship grew from undertwo hundred in average worship attendance to just over one thousand in aperiod of about ten years. Pastor Sjogren shared the church's experiences andinsights in a book entitled Conspiracy of Kindness.

We see another example at the United Methodist Church of the Resurrectionin downtown Kansas City, Missouri. Pastor Scott Chrostek launchedFirst Serve Saturdays at his new church start-up. For Pastor Scott, First ServeSaturdays served two purposes: it built the reputation of the church as onethat serves and cares about downtown Kansas City, and it gave people aplace to connect in the first steps of their faith journey, even before attendingworship.

The Missouri Conference of the United Methodist Church was so compelledby this example that it conducted a one-day outreach to the missionfield on September 11, 2011 dubbed "Serve 2011." More than four hundredchurches and ten thousand people participated; 25 percent of the latter wereunconnected.

This practice of relational evangelism does not require people to articulatetheir faith. It simply requires them to demonstrate it by their service.Using our previous example, the card on the water bottle does the explaining.It is important to note that helping others is something that children,youth, and younger adults especially want to engage in. Relational evangelismthrough service is a great way for these age groups to begin sharing the GoodNews of God's love in Jesus Christ. In fact, the first connection with the congregationfor young people is often through service opportunities. Membersof the generation under 30 years of age desire to roll up their sleeves and serveothers. There is more about how service projects are a part of the discipleshipprocess in Chapter Ten.

Take a few moments now to reflect on how you might do relationalevangelism through service in your church:

• What relational evangelism service projects could you do with yourcurrent resources to express God's love to persons in your community?

• How might you modify current service projects so that they functionas relational evangelism through service?

• How do you see relational evangelism helping persons in your communitydiscover and experience God's love?

• What difference do you think this would make in transforming yourcommunity?

• What difference do you think this would make in transforming yourchurch?

After you've had a significant number of persons in your church practicingrelational evangelism through service on a regular basis over the courseof several months—congratulations! You are now ready to move into middleschool evangelism.