The Ideal Outreach Program: A Narrative

You Remembered My Name?  I Am So Impressed!

We may know the roles our fellow church members play in the ministry of the church. We may surmise how the pastor or other church leaders look at us. But, the most important perspective we need to understand centers around the view of the new convert. The others may feed our need for self-esteem or sense of importance. That is not necessarily wrong, but it doesn't speak to the core need. Our basic need, as a church, is to see ourselves through the eyes of the person who has never been a part of the church. Let's put it in narrative form.

"Tom had never been to the Church, but he sat next to someone at a restaurant last summer who invited him to come. He didn't really expect that he would take them up on it, but they handed him a brochure that seemed interesting. It mentioned that they helped people who had problems with drug abuse. He knew he needed help, but didn't really know what to do. He wanted some information without committing himself to a church. He noticed on the brochure that the church had a website. When he went home, he checked it out because he knew he could surf the web anonymously. When he visited the site online, he liked the pictures he saw and thought the information about the church made the congregation attractive to him.

"One Sunday, Tom decided he would drive over to the services and see if it was something he could go for. When he pulled into the parking lot, there were a lot of cars, but he noticed several spaces close to the main entrance that were empty. He immediately thought that it was "lucky" for him. When he got out of his car, another man and his wife, a couple of cars away, were also walking across the parking lot to the church. He had never seen them before, but they smiled at him. The man came over, introduced himself and asked for Tom's name. As they neared the front door, another couple approached. The man introduced Tom to them. The greeter at the door smiled at Tom, but before she could ask his name, the first gentleman again introduced Tom. She shook his hand and, as the others went on into the sanctuary, she asked if he found a good parking spot. She also asked if he knew any particular person in the church who would like to know that he was in attendance. She then handed him a Welcome Packet and asked him to be sure to fill out the card enclosed.

While they talked, a host came over, shook Tom's hand and called him by name. Tom looked puzzled, but the host explained that someone had already mentioned his name to him. He seemed surprised. The host then asked if he would like to hang up his coat and hat in the coatroom. He showed him where the coatroom was and also pointed out the location of the restrooms. After asking Tom if there were any other needs he might be able to take care of, he invited him over to the Welcome Center. There, the attendant shook Tom's hand and called him by name. She informed him of the morning's schedule and mentioned that the church had a number of ministries that she would share with him if he wanted to know more about them. She then told him of the various adult classes he could visit.

The host escorted him to one of the classrooms. He introduced him by name to the class host. The class host, in turn, introduced him to the teacher, pointed out the coffee and donuts that were available, and introduced him by name to several other class members. The teacher mentioned Tom's name during the preliminaries and several people close to him shook his hand and smiled. When the teacher got into the lesson, a man sitting near Tom noticed that he didn't have a lesson leaflet so he got one for him. He also asked Tom if he had received a visitor’s packet when he came into the church lobby. When Tom said yes, the man encouraged him to fill out the card.

After class, another man talked to Tom on the way out of class. When he found out that Tom had never attended before, he said he would come and sit with him in the worship service. He explained several things to Tom, such as why we pray together, why we worship so enthusiastically and why we clap our hands. During the service, Tom thought it was different, but he liked it. When the minister closed his message, Tom stood reverently, but did not respond. He didn't feel that it was time. Afterwards, many people came to him, shook his hand and told him they were glad he came. One lady, who introduced herself as one of the hostesses, asked if he had filled out his card. He said not yet, but that he would. She offered to do it for him if he would tell her what to write. She seemed so nice and sincere, he agreed. A few more people spoke to him on the way out of the church. One man called him by name. Tom was impressed.

On the next day, Tom heard a knock on his door around 6:30 pm. He opened it to a couple that looked familiar to him. He knew why when they said they were from the Church. They said they wanted to stop by with a little gift and tell him how important it was to the church for him to visit on Sunday. They handed him a small package of jams and jellies. They didn't stay long, so it wasn't much of an interruption to Tom's evening. "That was nice", he thought. "I may go back sometime."

On Tuesday, Tom saw a letter from the church as he went through his stack of mail. Again, it was a thank you for attending on Sunday, and an invitation to come back. A special guest speaker was going to be there and he was from a city where Tom lived for a while when he was a boy. "These people really go all out," he thought. "I ought to check them out a little more."

That evening, Tom logged on again to the church website and studied it more intently than the first time he looked at it. He looked at what they believed. There, he saw something about water baptism and speaking in tongues. He had always thought that tongues were for kooks, but he knew that these people were not that. He asked a friend of his at work about it, but he didn't know very much about religion of any kind. He suggested that Tom get out the old family bible and see what it said. Tom laughed, but on Saturday, he did just that. It took him a while, but he found it, plus a whole lot more. Just then, the phone rang. A member of the visitation team of the church was on the other end, and said they would love to see Tom visit again on Sunday. Tom went back.

Tom again got the royal treatment when he arrived. In the classroom and in the worship service, he paid closer attention to everything the teacher and preacher said. This time, he decided to go forward and pray at the invitation. When he knelt down, another man knelt down beside him and asked him his name and if he knew why he came to the altar. Tom just said he felt he needed to know God and the Bible more. The man gave him a few pointers about prayer and prayed with him a few moments. Nothing happened right away, but when Tom got up, he felt better. As he turned around to leave, a lady shook his hand and asked him if he had ever had a personal bible study. It wasn't long until he was all set up to have a man come to his house on Tuesday evening and teach him a home bible study. Before he left, another man introduced himself to Tom and invited him to play some basketball with the men of the church on Thursday night. Tom said no because of an old knee injury. But he thanked him for the invitation.

Tom went back to church several more Sundays and returned to the altar to pray. Suddenly, it all happened at once. God filled him with the Holy Ghost, speaking in tongues, and he was led to the baptistry. Everything was laid out for him---the clothes, the towels, even the registration to sign. Tom was baptized that morning in Jesus' name! It was wonderful. When he finally left to go home, another lady handed him an envelope with his baptismal certificate inside, already typed out and signed by the pastor. He thought that was very nice. Before he left, the lady asked him if he was coming to church that night. On the spot, he said he would. After all, how could he not come when he had just received so much from God that morning?

When Tom came back to service in the evening, three more people came to him. One lady said she was the Prayer Coordinator and she wanted to talk to him about setting up his personal prayer life. She gave him some material and got him committed to fifteen minutes of prayer every day. Another lady came to him and talked to him about regularly reading the Bible. She was the Bible Reading Coordinator and she gave him several options for reading the Bible on a daily basis. The third person was a man who said he would like to help Tom with any and every question he had about his new life with God over the next six to twelve months. He said he would act as a mentor or advisor to Tom about his spiritual life. He unfolded a flow chart for new converts progress and explained to him what would be happening in his life over the next year. He talked to him about some pitfalls, some changes that would take place and some things he would learn. He also said he would enroll him in the new converts class on Sunday mornings. As a typical new convert, Tom was eager to learn all he could as fast as he could learn it.

After another three months went by, Tom was settling into his brand new life. He finished his home bible study and was attending the new converts class. He was praying and reading his bible every day. He had several hurdles to get over like smoking, and was interested in some other issues that the church called standards. He also didn't understand some doctrinal points he heard preached over the pulpit. His mentor was a great help to him in explaining these things to him and got him some additional material like books and tapes that helped Tom even more. Another couple came to him and said they would like to talk to him about working for God in some way. They said they worked in the Recruiting Ministry. They administered a spiritual gifts test to him, and talked to him about the importance of getting involved in a ministry of the church. When they found out that Tom had some experience in designing websites and other computer skills, they introduced him to the Media Coordinator. It wasn't long until Tom was contributing in a major way to the church's website. He also developed some aspirations for other areas as well, like advertising and campus ministry.

Today, Tom is deeply involved in the church. He is teaching two home bible studies on his own, and is also working with others in the altar ministry. He has become an established saint of God, and wants to win as many souls for Christ as he can.

At this point, this story is fictitious. It serves as a visionary model, however, for a pattern that could be established at an Apostolic Church. It can easily be seen that each area of evangelism plays a major role in the entire process of saint-making: Outreach, Inreach, Follow-Up, Discipleship and Service. One thing is common to every ministry is love and name recognition. These elements---working together---will work every time. Our vision should be to take people from wherever they are in life to the point of an established saint of God. Anything less is an incomplete mission.