You should check out this very insightful post about Servant Evangelism (SE). Chris Elrod is the author and he did a good job dispelling the myths about servant evangelism.
People who are really into evangelism don't typically get Servant Evangelism. The key concept to get is "NO strings attached." People who don't get this concept basically use SE as a means to draw attention to their church or try to entice people to come to their church. You can tell these people because they are typically bummed after an SE project that didn't produce a body count. It rarely does.
Servant Evangelism could also be called "Stealth" Evangelism. You are usually in and out before anyone realizes that they have been touched by your ministry. Churches that begin SE programs with the notion that people will come flooding into the church the following Sunday typically end up disappointed. They don't get it.
Steve Sjogren, the founder of Servant Evangelism and the man who wrote the book that this blog was named for once said that they saw very little direct growth from Servant Evangelism - in other words, few of the people that they had served came to their church. However, oddly enough, the Lord brought equivalent numbers of people to the church because of their faithfulness to serve Cincinnati.
Don't do Servant Evangelism to swell your members' directory. It will never work like that. Do SE to make your community a nicer place. Do it to get to know your neighbors. Do it to give someone a smile. If you do, you'll find that you and the people who do it with you will grow. Who knows? As a result of that, your church probably will too.
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2 comments:
Thanks for the "link love". Some people aren't getting my blog post at all. I'm not saying don't do SE...I'm saying go into it with you eyes wide open. As I wrote I can't give you one single person that came as a direct result of SE...but I can give you a bunch of people that came to our because of an indirect result of SE. SE makes your people think outside of themselves...which helps them be better in tune to those around them that need to hear about...or see...Jesus.
No prob, man.
I think that so many churches start SE because they don't understand just how different it is. If it is being done for a body count and if it is not being done consistently without an eye to "results" then a church might as well not even start doing it.
You just managed to say much better what I had been trying to communicate in my post. Thanks for your comment.
I'll look forward to checking your blog out regularly. Keep up the good writing!
Thanks for coming by, Chris.
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