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VOL. 13, NO. 24

Churches Leading
Evangelism Workshops

• New Beginnings UMC, Severn
• Eden Korean UMC, Baltimore
• Wesley Freedom UMC, Eldersburg
• St. Lukes UMC, Reisterstown
• Bethany UMC, Ellicott City
• Lovely Lane UMC, Baltimore
• Eastern UMC, Baltimore
• Catonsville UMC, Catonsville
• St. Matthews UMC, Baltimore
• John Wesley UMC, Baltimore
• Living Springs Christian Fellowship, Bowie
• Bel Air UMC, Bel Air
• First UMC, Berkley Springs
• Community UMC, Crofton
• New Covenant UMC, Cumberland
• First UMC, Hyattsville

Evangelism Is a Verb:

Active outreach crucial for growth

BY JOHN W. COLEMAN, JR. UMCONNECTION Staff

Aroused by praise and gospel music, informative workshops and an episcopal call to action, more than 130 laity and clergy at the Evangelism Is a Verb conference, Nov. 22-23, learned that spiritual passion and strategic preparation are both essential to sharing the gospel and nurturing disciples of Jesus Christ.

Sponsored by the conference Board of Evangelization, the two-day event combined inspiration and instruction to offer some proven methods of reaching out to unchurched people. Pastors and laity from growing churches in the conference provided leadership. They taught 16 two-hour workshops on effective strategies for forging a strategic vision, reaching out to the community, welcoming people into the congregation and helping members become disciples and evangelists.

I stand here to say that every church can grow spiritually and numerically, proclaimed Bishop Felton Edwin May in his keynote address. He challenged attendees to emulate the holy boldness of Jesus followers in the book of Acts by claiming and using the power of their faith in the resurrection of Christ.

Were dealing with lukewarm Christians who have not surrendered themselves completely to Jesus Christ as Lord, said Bishop May, referring to those who fail to actively evangelize non-believers because they lack confidence or conviction. Denouncing the club mentality of some churches that limits their outreach and growth, he called upon churches to not merely welcome people who come to their doors, but to go out into the highways and byways of life and bring them in.

Bringing greetings from the Zimbabwe Annual Conference, Bishop May lauded the growth of the church there, despite extreme poverty, and the new emergence of United Methodism in Senegal, West Africa. He also reported on the celebration of Africa Universitys 10th anniversary, which he had recently attended.

Workshop leaders from churches of various sizes, emphasized their responsibility to evangelize. They cited their experiences in visioning for growth, offering discipling and small-group experiences, practicing servant evangelism through community acts of kindness, empowering laity to actualize their passions for specific ministries, and using music, teaching and preaching to attract people with different needs, tastes and backgrounds.

The two-day evangelism conference occurs every two years, with a one-day conference occurring in intervening years. But this years event was different.

Its a new concept for us to use pastors and laity from our own local churches to share their information and experiences in worship, evangelism and church growth, said Mildred Franklin, chairwoman of the Board of Evangelization and a member of St. Marks UMC, Baltimore. While the event has featured national speakers in the past, explained Franklin, the intent this year was to offer local leaders with home-grown expertise, who can be called upon easily by churches needing additional help later.

The most helpful thing was the new format with local speakers, said the Rev. Karen McCorkle Thompson, a new pastor at Brooklyn Heights UMC in Brooklyn Park. This was her third evangelization conference and her first as a clergywoman.

Despite the diversity of churches, we share some similarities in our situations and geographical areas. Also, we know of the successes and struggles of some of these churches, like Lovely Lane (UMC in Baltimore), and it helps to hear how they turned around.

Thompson said it was helpful to have lay and clergy teams both lead and participate in the event together.

For my lay people to hear ideas from other lay people increased their enthusiasm and broadened their perspective, Thompson said. They came back motivated, saying Weve got to rewrite our mission statement. Such changes, she added, may be more acceptable to other laity when they hear ideas from each other rather than from just the pastor.

Churches that had not accepted a new member in the last two years were specifically asked to attend the event. The Board of Evangelization plans to track some churches progress in using the information and ideas gained from the conference, Franklin said, and will try to help them with resources when needs arise.