Excerpt from Blueprints for Congregational Reach Out
Phase I: Preparation
- Changing the congregation's mental images. The first step in changing the evangelistic effectiveness pattern in any church always involves efforts to change two basic mood states in the congregation's leaders:
- Motivation. Any church anywhere can grow evangelistically with absolutely no outside help if members have the inner motivation to grow. Better methods for doing evangelism are, of course, always helpful. But without the inner spirit of "want to," no amount of instruction in "how to" can change a nongrowth pattern.
- Attitude, or the positive feeling that growth can occur in our church. Many Christian leaders block the growth of their congregation because their own personal feelings of ineptness in evangelism prevent them from any real effort in that direction. Their mental attitude paralyzes constructive action.
- Any efforts to change a congregation's evangelistic achievement must therefore begin by changing low motivation to high motivation and negative attitudes about potential evangelism success into positive attitudes. While efforts to eliminate these mental image blocks must necessarily go on constantly in a congregation, the most significant energies must be put into a major change in motivation and attitude prior to the implementation of the ten-week, ten-step Blueprints for Congregational Reachout plan.
- Two very different alternatives are available for changing the congregation's mental images, and thereby preparing for successful use of the ten-week, ten-step plan.
- The best way to accomplish the preparation phase is a visit to the congregation by an outside consultant trained in helping congregations get started with this method.
- The second alternative for accomplishing the preparation phase is a three to six month period of group process consciousness-raising techniques within the congregation and its decision-making structures. If this preparation process is elected, the following plan should be used, along with every other idea that leaders can think of to move church members, and especially key leaders, to "think evangelism" and "plan for growth."
