Evangelism Efforts
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I hope this finds you well and enjoying your summer.
As we all know, close to 90% of people come to faith in Christ through a personal encounter/relationship with a follower of Jesus. However, statistics show that less than 10% of Christians engage in sharing their faith due to not feeling equipped, not knowing they are called and/or not liking the models they have seen in evangelism.
The question is how do we establish evangelism as a way of life for our people? How do we have our people sharing the love of Jesus in a natural and life-giving way in their daily lives?
One of the best ways is to have mission minded lay leaders coming alongside you as clergy in your mission to help all lay faithful engage in the mission of the church.
I am writing to invite you to send me your evangelists and mission minded laity (or people you see have potential for this) to engage in evangelism equipping and resourcing.
Here are three specific ways to connect your laity with evangelism equipping and mission idea sharing:
- EVANGELISM COURSE/ COHORT at the Stanton School for Ministry.
Fr. Ryan Pollock and I will be teaching a one year course (evangelism cohort) that meets once a month for 3 hours through the Stanton School for Ministry on personal and parish evangelism. This will be an opportunity to further equip your laity to engage in the work of faith sharing and to expand their vision in how to be mission catalysts in your parish. The course will meet one Saturday a month for 3 hours. My course will begin Saturday, September 15th. Please contact Janet Page to sign up . Scholarships are available.
TOPICS for each Month:
September- Salvation History overview. Defining evangelism and its role in the church.
October– What is the Gospel and how do we share the Gospel Narrative?
November- Personal Evangelism: Sharing Faith in Daily Life (including personal faith stories and the role of prayer and the Holy Spirit in evangelism)
December – Jesus: The Missionary and the Message. How did Jesus engage in evangelism? How can his way be applied to our context?
January – Preaching the Gospel. Giving an evangelistic talk.
February - Conversational Apologetics: Engaging the Questions/Engaging the Questioner
March – Being an Evangelistic Church. How, What, When, Where, Who
April – Equipping ambassadors for daily missional living. How to ignite your church to share their faith with seekers and skeptics. From the workplace, home, neighborhood, to local and global mission.
May- Parish Evangelism – knowing our context and developing evangelistic systems for your parish.
- LAY ORDER OF EVANGELISTS.
The lay order of evangelists will meet quarterly for prayer and evangelism idea sharing and annually for a retreat. We commit to a rule of life of prayer, study, faith sharing, and evangelism equipping in our local parish. To become a lay evangelist one must:
- Be recommended by the priest and vestry.
- Be received by the diocesan lay order committee (Canon Jordan Hyden, Canon Carrie Headington, Canon Jeremy Bergstrom, Canon Michael Gilton)
- Attend a one year evangelism cohort at the Stanton School for Ministry with Canon Carrie Headington.
- Do an evangelism project at one’s local parish.
- Be commissioned by Bishop George Sumner
- EVANGELISM LEADERSHIP NETWORK.
This is a network of lay leaders from each local parish with whom we can share parish and personal evangelism resources. This is a network designed to communicate evangelism training happening on the diocesan level to your parish. Furthermore, it is a network designed to encourage one another in the work of evangelism. The hope is for all parishes to have an evangelism point person. PLEASE send Laura Faulkner, Assistant to Canon Carrie Headington, the name and contact information of your evangelism representative. Email Laura at . We will recognize them at Diocesan Convention.
Please do not hesitate to contact me for your evangelism ideas and needs.
Yours in Christ,
Carrie
Canon Carrie Boren Headington
903-399-3230