Evangelizing Your Community - Lesson 6

By Stafford North

Public Information

Background for the Teacher

Objectives:

  1. The student can draw from memory the chart showing the elements of congregational evangelism. (This objective begins with this lesson and subsequent lessons complete it.)
  2. The student can list at least five ways in which a church can excel in public information.
  3. The student will consider whether he/she needs to have as specific role in public information for the congregation.

Preparation:

  1. Each student should have paper and pen.
  2. The teacher needs access to a chalkboard or markerboard or to a projection to use the supplied graphic.
  3. Read Chapter 3 in North's Evangelizing Your Community on Public Information. Use information from this chapter as beneficial in the class discussion.

Theme:

To have an effective local outreach program, a congregation needs to be effective in eight different functions, one of which is "public information."

Lesson Plan for Conducting the Class

Introduction: (10 minutes)

  1. Call the roll and introduce any new people.
  2. Remind the class of the overall purpose of this course: to help individuals to be effective in reaching out in their community and to help the congregation to be able to do more in local outreach.
  3. Sing a song about evangelism.
  4. Prayer for the class and for outreach.
  5. Ask members of the class to share any experiences they had in the past week as they tried to visit with people about Christ, the church, or related topics.

Learning Experiences: (35 minutes)

  1. To have an effective local outreach, a congregation needs to be effective in eight different areas. In this class session we will start a study of these. In later sessions we will consider others. Also in this lesson, each of you needs to be asking the question, "Do I need to take a specific role in the work we will discuss today." (Draw on the board or use the PowerPoint included on a separate document to show the first circle in the congregational evangelism chart.)
  2. The first element in building a strong evangelistic outreach is for a congregation to be highly regarded in the local community. Read Acts 2:47. Q: What did the community think of the church in Jerusalem? Read Acts 5:13. Q: What did the community think of the church in Jerusalem?
  3. Q: What are the benefits for our congregation to have a good public image? A: It will make people more likely to respond favorably to our invitations to visit. It will make people more likely to accept our invitations for a Bible study. It will make people more likely to respond favorably to what we seek to teach them.
  4. Q: What do you think is our reputation in the community?
  5. Q: What do you think have been factors that have led people to think this of us?
  6. Q: What are things we could do in the community to improve our standing with the people around us? (Be sure to leave at least 15 minutes for this part of the lesson. Use Chapter 3 in Evangelizing Your Community as a resource for guiding this conversation. Be sure the group includes things related to making the building attractive and inviting, using good signage, having a good website, treating visitors well and having good follow_up with them, serving the community well, having members involved in community organizations, making an impact on neighborhoods where the members live, and using the local media. Have someone in the class make a list of the items suggested so these can be passed along to the elders or others for possible implementation.)

Application: (2 minutes)

  1. On the back of the sheet where you have started to draw the chart, write down something you would like to do to help the church have a better image in the community.
  2. Is this an area in our evangelistic program in which you would like to specialize?

Assignment:

  1. Do something this week which you believe will give someone a good impression of the church and be prepared to tell about it next week.
  2. Keep the drawing you have started for use next week. You can fold it and put it in your Bible.

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