The following messages on evangelism by Bishop John W. Howe are entitled, The Right Moment and The Right Method. 

I want to begin with 2 Timothy chapter 4, Paul's closing instructions to one of the two young men to whom he was entrusting his ministry. This comes very late in his life. It may be the last thing that he wrote that we have recorded.

And Timothy and Titus were younger disciples of Paul who had traveled with him. And they were not to become apostles in his stead, but in essence were to become bishops, overseers of the church, and take over when Paul departed the scene. This is his last word to Timothy, which seems to be his last letter of all.

and he says I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom preach the word I charge you preach the word be urgent in season and out of season convince rebuke and exhort be unfailing in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths. As for you, always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Now that is addressed to a leader and, if you like, a bishop in the early church. But in a broader sense, I want to suggest to you that that's a commission to all of us. And especially, I'm attracted and moved by the final line that I just read you because of the gifts and the ministries of the Holy Spirit, evangelism is one of them.

We've gone over that before, that the gift of evangelism, the calling to be an evangelist, is one of the special anointings of the Holy Spirit. But Timothy was not primarily an evangelist. And yet Paul here says to him, not be an evangelist, but do the work of one.

And I think he's saying that to all of us. Preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, do the work of an evangelist. Living Bible translates that this way.

I solemnly urge you before God and before Christ Jesus to preach the Word of God urgently at all times, whenever you get the chance, in season and out, when it is convenient and when it is not. And then the end of the passage, stand steady and don't be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Bring others to Christ.

Now I want to just analyze with you, just very briefly, this is very obvious, the way casual conversation works. a neighbor, a friend, coffee break at work, whatever it is sit down and we chit chat and it just seems to me that it's important that we notice that either we're returning his serve or he's returning ours isn't that right? somebody has to start off a discussion and they bring up some far out topic you know, whatever it might be and either we return his serve let him set the discussion agenda or we set it.

Right? And of course it changes. We go from one subject to another.

But that's important because there's any number of things that my friends might introduce into conversation with me that I am not just overwhelmingly interested in but because I like them I'll bat it around for a while. Right? And why shouldn't I have the same privilege?

As a matter of fact I do. You know, be it the Cincinnati Reds or flower arranging or, you know, the weather or whatever it is. I have the same privilege to introduce a topic into conversation as the other person.

I would suggest to you that if you are not embarrassed, the other person won't be either. Okay? So we've got to really look at ourselves in this regard.

If you are not embarrassed to talk about the Lord Jesus, to talk about what it means to know Him, to talk about the Gospel, then the other person won't be embarrassed either. But if you're, you know, oh, jeez, I've got a witness. Let's see, what was it?

Point 1B, he was... And Chet, no, Chet, I know you don't really... Oh, my, oh, Lord, help me.

Chet, you know, and the other guy's going to... What is this? Right?

But if you go into it free in your own spirit and willing to have him not be interested, so you're not uptight, it's not all this tremendous emotional vested interest, you, if he's interested, have the opportunity of sharing the greatest gift that anybody could ever give. If he's not interested, he's not interested. That's his loss, not yours.

Now, I'd like to give you a rule of thumb that if you're going to try, and I'm going to hopefully give you some handles how to get started, but if you're going to try to introduce the subject into conversation, the rule of thumb that I would always follow is that if the other person changes the subject twice, drop it. All right? If he changes it once, I'd come back at him, go around one more time.

I'll try it once I'll throw out a feeler see if I can engage him in some discussion and we'll talk about it a while and then if he changes the subject once I'll try once more to bring it back if he changes it a second time I'll take the hint and I won't push it and I think that would be a helpful rule of thumb to you three principles it seems to me underlie engaging someone in an evangelistic conversation, or at least three. Number one, find out where the other person is. Find out where he is.

As Billy said, he started out to share the gospel. Lo and behold, he's talking to somebody who already knows the Lord. Praise God.

Isn't that lovely? It may be that there's somebody who is really struggling with an overwhelming sense of guilt. Okay?

ready to receive the gospel, but he thinks he's not good enough. And so here you are trying to convince him of the facts of the gospel. That's not his problem at all.

His problem is that he's never really understood the freedom of guilt through the cross. And as soon as he gets that, he's going to be able to respond. On the other hand, there may be somebody who is really hung up on an intellectual or a philosophical or theological point you know now we can and usually do use theological questions to hold it off at arm's length and I've discovered that when when somebody just throws one question after another at me he really is not interested in the answers he's more interested in keeping it away than he is in getting those questions answered but it may be that somebody has a particular thing that's really hanging him up I remember talking with an Indian international student one time and we were talking about the gospel and finally he said to me but I just don't see how a man could become God and I said ah but what about God becoming a man his whole expression changed it was like a light bulb you know in the little cartoon the light bulb going on he was hung up on a misunderstanding of the incarnation and it was the bottleneck and as soon as that barrier was gone, right?

So we've got to, number one, find out where the other person is. The easiest and the best way to do that is to ask him. The easiest and the best way to find out where he is is to ask him.

Again, I hope that in a few minutes I'm going to give you some ideas on how you might do that in a way that is a little bit more gracious than just coming up and saying, Are you saved? which may work, but then again, you know. Ask him, okay?

It may be in some occasions that somebody will just let it all hang out with you and you don't need to do any asking. You know, you may have that kind of an experience from time to time. But I'm talking about most normal everyday circumstances with most normal everyday friends.

That's the first principle is we've got to find out where the other person is or else we're not really communicating. Secondly, treat him with respect. Treat him with respect.

That means at least three things. Don't be pushy. You know, the horror of the five-minute evangelist who's cramming it down his throat, right?

We've all seen or heard, you know, maybe some of you have had experiences with that. There are organizations which hit the beaches at spring break and try to evangelize college students. And I have no doubt, I want to say a good word before a bad word, I have no doubt that God has used those organizations to bring thousands to Christ.

All right? But I also know that for everyone who's come, there are at least two who have been so totally turned off by the high-pressure salesmanship. And I know and can document people who have gone through a prayer of commitment just to get rid of the guy.

And secondly, when we're asking him, we're trying to find out where this other person is. It may be that he's very wrong in where he is or in his understanding. Don't put him down for his answer.

Don't put him down. try to find a way of affirming him even in the inadequacy of his answer for instance we'll get to this in just a minute but somebody you're talking about the gospel and somebody says well yeah I'm a Christian you know I stopped beating my wife and you know I pay my taxes and I'm as good as the next guy right and he has a works righteousness understanding being a Christian means trying to do your best trying to be a good citizen alright You, having taken this little course, you know that that is totally out to lunch. And so you say, You dummy!

That isn't Christianity! No, let me tell you the real thing. Well, you know, you've just ruined him.

You know? So you want to affirm him in that answer and then lead him on more positively to something more. You know, that's beautiful.

That's beautiful. And I bet it's really been a struggle for you to give up beating your wife. I remember what you were like three years ago you've made terrific progress but you know you know that's what I grew up with for years that was what I thought Christianity was all about and then I began to discover there was something more you feel the difference between that response there was something more and you're wrong so don't put him down for his answer try to affirm him and lead him on to something more and then thirdly I'd like to suggest to you ask permission to share the gospel with him ask permission and I'll show you how that works in just a moment that's all under my second point treat him with respect that means don't be too pushy don't put him down for his answer and ask permission to share the gospel with him the third principle is Jesus is the message and we've talked about this last week Jesus is the message not just my personal experience of him you know I used to be this and now I'm this that's good that's exciting that may be very helpful it's a kind of an appetizer spiritually but the main course is Jesus himself so we want eventually to get to talking about the Lord what he did 2,000 years ago over that last week.

Had one person take the assignment, she's not here tonight to report on it, but she said she had one of those conversations that went all the way right up to the point. The person was ready, understood it, said, yes, I understand it, I believe it, and she didn't know what to do next. So let me just...

if somebody has gone through all of this with you and says, yes, I understand, I see, yeah, that's fantastic, simply ask him if he's ready, if he would like to receive Christ's gift right now. Would you like to receive this gift of new life right now? And then, if you've never done that and you don't know quite how to do it, I'd just share with you the kind of thing that I would typically do.

I'd say, let's just close our eyes. let's imagine the Lord Himself standing here with us and why don't you just talk to Him just talk to Him as naturally as you would talk to me I'd encourage the person to make his own prayer many cases people have never ever tried to do that and they can't but I'd encourage him first to do that if he can't I don't know how to pray say well would you like me to help you through a prayer and if he says yes to that and I just lead him phrase by phrase through a very simple prayer. Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, thank you for loving me.

Thank you for loving me, and so on. Take him right through the steps of it. And the prayer should include at least two things.

Confessing his sin. Lord, I'm sorry that I've hurt you. I'm sorry that I've done all those rotten things that made you have to go to a cross for me.

Please forgive me for my sin. and inviting Christ to become his Lord personally. Inviting Christ to become his Lord personally.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice, I will come in. You've got to open the door.

Invite him to come into your life. Tell this person. He won't come in until you invite him in.

And so actually, if he needs help forming the words, Lord Jesus, come into my life and take up residence as my Lord. I entrust myself to you. I take myself out of my own keeping and I put myself in your keeping.

Again, be patient. Don't be nervous. Don't rush it.

It's a beautiful moment in somebody's life. And if the person tries the first time and doesn't quite get those two elements into the prayer, I'd go back over it and help him through them. It's funny how people will shy away from the critical moment.

You know, we've led people up to this point. They're all set to pray and then they form their prayer and they say, please become real to me. You know.

That's not what we're talking about. He won't be real to you until you invite Him to come into your life as Lord. So those two elements, and you've got to lead Him right through those two things.

And then having done all of that, I'd ask Him, did you really mean it? Yes, I did. Did he come into your life?

Well, I don't feel any different. We're not talking about feelings. What's his promise?

His promise, and if you want to jot this down, a very useful reference, John 6, verse 37, He who comes to me I will in no wise cast out. Did you come to him? Is his promise the word of a gentleman?

Yes, it is. Did you ask him to become your Lord? Yes, I did.

Well, are you going to rely on your feelings or on his promise? So that's kind of the birth process and very, very brief. Take a person through the facts of the gospel.

Do you understand this? Yes, I do. Do you want to receive this Lord Jesus right now?

Yes, I do. All right. Ask him to come in.

Confess your sin. Ask him to become your Lord. And then having done so, did you do it?

Yes, I did. Is he faithful? Yes, he is.

So that we want to help him right off the bat to make sure that his assurance is on Christ's promise rather than his feelings. His feelings may be absolutely ecstatic, but that will pass. And we don't want him to trust his feelings.

We want him to trust the facts. Sometimes when you're right down to the wire with somebody, I just take a book. They really get hung up on the idea of receiving.

believe and receive and I take a book and I say just suppose this was eternal life right here do you want it? yes I do ok it's yours if you receive it and I hold it out and he'll sit there and he'll look and then he'll reach out and take it and then the light comes on I've got to take it I hand him something he'll take it out of my hand just as I handed you that book, you've got to reach out and take the gift from the Lord Jesus. He offers it as a gift, but it requires a receiver as well as a giver.

And then usually I do one more thing at that point with the person. Whether I've led him through the prayer or whether he's prayed his own prayer all by himself, usually before we quit, I will lay my hands on him and pray for him. And I just say, Lord, you heard Joe ask this of you, and I bear witness to it, and we agree together that your word is true, and I just ask you to meet him and fill him with your spirit right now.

Something like that, which would be very helpful, and you're then kind of sealing the bargain with him. One of the lovely things that you could do if you have the privilege of leading somebody to the Lord is agree to follow it up in a couple of basic ways. You could suggest to him that you'll get together at least a couple of times a week for the next month and study some scripture together.

And you might start him off on some scripture reading that he might do. There's all sorts of things that could be helpful to you. There are booklets to help him get into the Bible that you could get out of the bookstore.

You could just say, why don't you read through the Gospel of Mark and we'll talk about it. Whatever fits your schedule. The other thing is that you would agree to pray for each other.

I'll pray for you and you pray for me. He's probably never really prayed for anybody on a consistent basis. And that does another interesting thing, by the way, that affirms him immediately as somebody with something to give.

He's not just on the receiving end, but he has something to offer. You want his prayers for you. And so you kind of covenant together to follow it up.

And that's a beautiful thing too. to initiate a conversation then three possibilities actually the circumstances might get you off the hook and the other person will end up in some way bringing up a spiritual topic and you can just move into it as Ernie did it might be that somebody will see you carrying a bible and raise a question or see you reading a book and raise a question about it And so a conversation has already been initiated and you really haven't done anything very active. Wearing a collar on occasion will bring that around.

I was in a restaurant not too long ago and a guy came up to the table, interrupted the luncheon, was in desperate need and said, can I talk to you? Boom, there we were. A collar sometimes is a barrier.

Sometimes it's a help. Secondly, you might be able to provoke a conversation by some intriguing comment. You might.

If the circumstances don't just bring it about, the topic doesn't just come up automatically, then you might, on occasion, be able to sort of launch into a spiritual conversation with some kind of an intriguing remark. I knew a guy. It was absolutely crazy.

he was one of the most effective evangelists I've ever seen, but he was a unique model, all right? God threw away the mold after this guy. But he'd be riding in the airplane, all right, going cross-country, and they'd be going over the Great Lakes, and his seat companion would be exclaiming at their majesty, and he'd say, You like those?

I thought, fantastic. My father made them. it's interesting to watch what happens when somebody gets converted and especially with a kid a young a young person they're so bursting with it that they it's just got to get out they've got to share it they'll just run up to somebody doesn't matter who their parents their friends their teachers I've got to tell you what happened to me and the interesting thing is this illustrates the opening comment I made that because they are completely without a sense of nervousness about it the other person can receive it right and then it begins to get a little bit old you know and they begin to work at it and it loses that freshness and they begin to get a little nervous you know and it's not the same but when God does something new and dramatic in your life sometimes you'll initiate a conversation just because, you know, something's happened.

If you come on a Sunday night and we pray for you and you're healed, you know, and you go back to work the next day and you're not limping anymore, you know, you've got something to say. And you might initiate a conversation out of that. God heals your child or, you know, some marvelous thing happens, 700 Club or in church or in a book you've read or something.

You just share it. That's the second way. You provoke a conversation out of something that's intriguing, something that's arresting, something that you share.

The third thing, and I think the easiest to cope with, is you engage him in conversation with the use of a question. You engage him in conversation with the use of a question. Now, let's just remember the principles that we've gone over.

we want to find out where he is got to ask him we want to treat him with respect we don't want to put him down he may be dead wrong in his understanding of the gospel but we don't want to say you're dead wrong we want to affirm him and lead him on to something more and we want to share Jesus that's the message okay I'm suggesting to you how do you start that it may just happen once in a while it may come out of your dropping some intriguing comment that he picks up on. And short of that, you're prepared to initiate a conversation by raising a question with him. Everybody with me?

Let me give you a set of questions. You're talking with somebody? Maybe this is somebody you're just meeting for the first time or somebody that you haven't known too well and this is the first kind of leisurely conversation that you've ever had with this person.

It's a coffee break and you've got a comfortable amount of time to chat. And there's a little lull and it seems like now's the moment. And here's your first question.

Are you interested in spiritual things? Are you interested in spiritual things? Or, if you feel uncomfortable with that phrase, are you interested in religion?

Are you interested? there's your first question then regardless of his answer second question tell me if I were to ask you what is a real Christian what would you say? Now let me just show you how that might work.

You ask somebody are you interested in spiritual things? Nah. Well tell me if I were to ask you what is a real Christian what would you say?

That follows. It may be that he's not interested in spiritual things because he hasn't the ghost of an idea what a real Christian is. You see.

He's only seen so many phonies. And that would be a logical question to raise. Or it might be, they say, yeah, oh man, I do my horoscope and, you know, well, tell me.

If I were to ask you, what is a real Christian, what would you say? In other words, he could give either extreme and almost anything in between, from no I'm not to yes I am to kind of lukewarm in the middle. And what you're really doing, this is the provocative question, is the second one.

The first one just starts to open it up. The second question is the one to see whether he's going to rise to the bait. Does he want to talk about it?

Is he prepared to? Does he have any idea what Christianity really is all about or not? And that question will begin to open it up.

I'll give you an alternative to that if you don't like that question. By the way, you might want to put the word real in parentheses. Some people get offended.

The idea of a real Christian is contrasting to some other kind. Of course it's redundant. Of course it is.

But we all know what's meant by that. A real Christian in contrast to somebody who's just going through the motions. And so depending on how you emphasize your words, it may be very helpful to phrase it that way.

If I were to ask you, what is a real Christian? What would you say? An alternative, if you don't like that question, would be, if I were to ask you to explain the Christian gospel, what would you say?

I found that to be a very, very helpful question as I'm counseling with folks. Oftentimes, counseling a couple before they get married. And we're talking about a Christian marriage.

And so I ask them, if I were to ask you to explain the Christian gospel, what would you say? And they'll come back with all manner of answers. You know, most of them reducing again to trying my best to earn my way into heaven.

And so that's the point at which I want to be gracious and affirm them and then lead them on. So I might give my own personal witness just in a sentence. I can really appreciate what you're saying because that's what I was raised to believe for years and years and years.

And you know, as a matter of fact, I never could see the point of it. And then all of a sudden, I discovered Christ as a living reality. Something like that.

Just a little word of witness to say, I can understand where you're coming from. you know, that's great, and I discovered something more. May I share with you what I've discovered?

There's where I'm asking the permission to go further. And if they say yes, then I've got my outline ready to go, you see, and I know exactly where I'm going. You get the point.

Now, that could take an hour to get through those three questions, or longer, right? and it might be that somebody is really you know not prepared to get into that and you're going to back off you're not going to be pushy at all about this but that's a way of initiating it starting from zero are you interested? do you have any interest in religion?

have any interest in spiritual things? and then whatever their answer well if I were to ask you to explain the Christian gospel what would you say? then I affirm them and say I know where you're coming from and then suddenly I've discovered Christ to be a living reality.

May I share with you what I've discovered? And then if you get the permission, you know where you're going. Everybody with me?

Very simple. I want to give you a couple more possible forms, but what I want to do just for a couple minutes at this point is a little role play. This has a specific background to it, and some of you are aware of it and some of you may not be.

There's a program that was developed by a man named Jim Kennedy, Dr. James Kennedy, who's the senior pastor of a church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. And he went there. It was a fairly nice little church, and in the course of the first few months, he reduced it to virtually nothing.

And then he began to discover how to equip his laymen to do evangelism. And he worked out a program that the laity would do, week by week, going out and visiting folks in their homes. and especially visiting people who might visit the church.

So they go to repay the call as a courtesy. You visited us, we're going to visit you. And that church has doubled and tripled and quadrupled and a hundredfold.

It's just a booming, booming enterprise, and lots and lots of churches around the country have taken over that program and adapted it in one way or another. By way of illustration. The program, as he devised it and as we and many other churches adapted it, had a specific focus to it.

It wasn't just for everyday conversation. It was designed to follow up those who visit on a Sunday morning and sign the guest book. And most churches will have a guest book or some kind of a card and we ask our visitors to sign and let us know that they've been there. And then I guess in most places a letter goes out from the pastor the rector in the next week and various kinds of follow-up.

Well, what Jim Kennedy did was he devised this particular program to go and return the visit of those who have visited us. Let me just describe it for you. It's a bit high power.

And in many cases, it's been somewhat adapted down, if you will, softened a little bit. But let me describe it to you the way they do it at Coral Ridge. Within the week after somebody has signed the guest book, if they're from the neighborhood, not just passing through from Toledo, but if they're in the neighborhood, we will send out to them on an evening a little team of highly trained visitors, usually three people that will go as a team together, and they'll arrive, usually unannounced, although sometimes they'll make appointments beforehand, and they'll say, we're from such and such a church, and you visited us on Sunday, and we want to return the visit.

Is it a convenient time to come in? Of course, sometimes it will not be. And the first thing you need to do is be very flexible and be very gracious.

We don't want to be pushy about this. Their feeling is that the spontaneity of it is more helpful than people kind of being on their best behavior and having known that they were coming. That's a trade-off in my mind.

But anyway, I'm just describing how they do it. They come in and they'll just have a conversation, just a friendly visit. And if that's all that develops, that's fine.

If all we can accomplish tonight is a friendly visit, that's fine. It has been a worthwhile thing to say you visited us and we visited you and we just wanted you to know that we appreciated it and hope you'll come back and that you'll recognize a friendly face when you get there next time and we'd love to sit with you and meet you at coffee hour and so on. If that's it, that's it.

But with a lot of prayer beforehand and some sensitivity in the midst of the conversation, the team is prepared, if there is a responsiveness on the other person's part, to go further than a friendly visit. And so let's say they've been there for 20 minutes or so, and they've been admiring the pictures and asking about what the husband and the wife do, what their job is and their kids and school and so on, where you moved from and why you happened to visit our church and so on you know all the stuff that goes into a visit and then at some point the leader of the team will say would it be all right if i asked you a couple of questions now mind you that's a very important entree would it be all right if i asked you a couple of personal questions occasionally people say no it wouldn't i'm sorry and that is always totally respected but that's the exception to the rule most people if you've established a little bit of rapport and if you ask their permission to go on into a little bit more sensitive area they'll say sure, go ahead I may not answer but go ahead and ask and so they have a very interesting question the first time I heard it I was horrified but the more I thought about it the more intriguing I find it because it really gets to the issue faster than any other question I know of. And it's this.

Have you come to the place in your spiritual life where you know that you're going to heaven? Or where you know that if you were to die, you would go to heaven? Have you come to the place in your spiritual life where you know that you are going to heaven?

You know what most people will answer to that? What do you think? Most people will answer, I hope so.

Or, I'm working on it. Because most people, in American society at least, would think that saying, yes, I know I'm going to heaven, would be a presumption on my part. Who do I think I am to make such a statement that I know I'm good enough to get into heaven?

which betrays to you a misunderstanding on the part of most people about how you get to heaven. It is not a matter of being good enough, is it? We can all line up on the west coast of California and start swimming and probably none of us are going to get there because the goal was Hawaii, right?

But statistically, something around 85% of all the people who have been asked, and by this time it's millions of people who have been asked that question, about 85% of them would say something like, I hope so, I'm working on it, but I don't know that I'm going to heaven. So the next question is, well, let me ask you this. If you were to die and stand before Almighty God, and he would ask you, why should I allow you into my heaven, what would you say?

That's a fascinating question, too. and it's fascinating to me because they ask that question regardless of the answer to the first one because occasionally in that 15% you'll find somebody who says yes I'm going to heaven but he thinks he's going to heaven for all the wrong reasons because he doesn't believe that God could ever send anybody anywhere else or because he thinks that God grades on the curve see and i'm no better i'm no worse than the next guy well the next guy's in bad trouble too so regardless of whether it's a yes or a no or i hope so or i don't know i'm working on it whatever the first answer is excuse me the second question is well if you were to stand before almighty god and he were to ask you why should i let you into my heaven what would you say and most people again something in the area of about an 85 percent return most people would say well i'm trying i know i've i'm not perfect but i'm trying and i don't think i'm much worse than most people and i go to church i'm not there every sunday but i you know i don't lie to the government, I pay my taxes, I stop beating my wife. What they're telling you very clearly is that their understanding of heaven and hell and salvation and damnation and making it or being rejected is a matter of my work, what I'm doing.

Works righteousness, as the reformers used to call it. And at that point, we move into the gospel with something like Well, you know, I used to think pretty much that myself until I discovered something about the Scripture and about the Lord Jesus that was brand new to me and it changed my life. Would it be okay if I shared with you a little bit about that?

No. I'm telling you what they say. And they get into this. Okay?

Or something like it. I used to think that being a Christian was a matter of trying to keep the Ten Commandments and go to church and pay my tithe and be nice to people and live by the golden rule until a new pastor came to our church and he explained things to me in a way I'd never heard. And he explained to me that we have a holy God.

And that the goal was Hawaii and I couldn't swim there and I was in deep trouble. And there I am, you see. And that's how it works.

And that was one of the ways that we used at Toro Church and at St. Stephen's Church back in Pittsburgh before that, and literally hundreds and hundreds of people in both places have either come to a first-time commitment to Christ or to a clarity of what that means that wasn't present previously. You know, there are a lot of people who have a kind of a vague, I hope so faith in the Lord and maybe have been good churchgoers for years but really don't understand the gospel as a gift of grace and really end up with an I hope so kind of a mentality. And so we have the clearer conversion of church people lots of times.

So how's that going to work out for you if you take seriously my challenge? I have no idea. But what other kinds of things could we do?

Could we have a visitation of newcomers program that would adopt some of this? Could we do some other things that would be a sort of a parochial level? I bet you if you began thinking about it in each of the parishes, maybe an open discussion with the vestry and the rector on a Saturday morning, and anybody who's interested, come and let's brainstorm.

You might come up with some really exciting things. I've known of some churches that have had a month of Sundays devoted to evangelism. literally a month of Sundays we designate next April to be a month of Sundays and everybody who is a member knows beforehand now it's going to be a special emphasis this month it's going to be a little different we're going to be specifically attempting to present the gospel from the pulpit and maybe in terms of special scripture readings and special music and maybe some people bearing witness at the time of the offertory somebody coming up and giving a little one minute witness about knowing Christ personally but whatever we do all of it is going to be geared to a presentation of the gospel and we want you to bring your friends go bring your friends and pray for them and be available to them afterward take them out to lunch and talk about what they experienced at the service let me just touch on my favorite little theme that I've been beating on the clergy at this point because now if you hear it you can beat on the clergy with me at this point.

And that is to say, could we take a real hard look, a real hard look, at how we could make our services a little bit more accessible to the newcomer? And I've coined the phrase, user-friendly worship. And sometimes it's hard to put ourselves into the boots of the newcomer.

It's been a long time since we've been a newcomer in an Episcopal church, but if you stop and think about it, it is often a pretty formidable experience. To come in and I'm handed a service leaflet that doesn't make the first bit of sense to me. You know, it looks like we're going to have three offerings.

We collect for purity. And then a few minutes later we collect for the day. And then we have an offertory.

And then at some point we serve roast beef. Angus day or something like that. And then there's some lady named Gloria Tibby who's going to sing.

You know, I mean, what in the world is going on? If you're going to do all that stuff, why not call it by its English names? Praise to Christ. Praise to the Lord.

That's one thing that might help. We have this incredible book where you go here for this and there for that. I'm not telling you what to do.

I'm asking you a question. What can you do to make it less formidable? people.