When I was the reach Director for the Oregon Conference, I ran the numbers for measuring growth that we had. Unfortunately, all they had ever kept track of was number of baptisms. I realize that isn’t the best measurement, but it is a measurement still. So, I did an analysis of the numbers that I… Read More »
The Science of Evangelism: How to Use Cognitive Dissonance to Encourage Change in Belief and Behavior
This article (and video) was written by Larry Witzel, President and Owner of SermonView and Evangelism Marketing. You will definitely want to click on the link and read the whole article: “Today, I’m going to dive into the psychology of Adventist evangelism. Specifically, I’m going to share some of the research about cognitive dissonance that… Read More »
God’s Party!
People (church members) often get really excited at opening night of an evangelistic series. The crowd, the new speaker, the backdrop, and all the busyness of getting people registered, greeted, announced, etc. The excitement is truly there. And for many people, the excitement wears off rather quickly because they stop coming. But for me, the… Read More »
Evangelism 2.0, pt. 2
Yesterday I talked about Evangelism 2.0: Evangelism for the Rest of Us. If you haven’t read that post, I encourage you to back up and read that one first. Once when I was presenting this information to my church, a friend and member decided to take me up on this and started making friends. But somehow… Read More »
Evangelism 2.0
I have a friend who coined this term. It was designed to move his church away from evangelism only being an event, and moving it more towards a Christian lifestyle. In other words, evangelism for the rest of us. It’s a great concept. Roughly 10% or less of any individual congregation has the spiritual gift of… Read More »
No One’s Even Here Now! Really?
I remember when a friend of mine stated matter-of-factly one day, “Well, no one’s even here from our evangelistic series in _____.” I knew otherwise and I said, “Sure there are, what about Ron, Jim, Mary?” “Really, They were part of that group?” He reacted. I went on and listed about 10 more names and… Read More »
Adventist Churches Grow Differently
I’ve read the articles. I’ve read the books. I’ve seen what other churches do. Yet, I was surprised when it wasn’t working for us. If we build it, they don’t come…. Much of the non-Adventist mentality on church growth is built around inviting people to come on Sunday mornings – come back to church, come… Read More »
