Benkert’s wife, Dana, is his partner in ministry. “She organizes church women to meet at [the same] local bakery-café every Tuesday,” building relationships with the wait staff and patrons. “She loves on people in the community so that they’ll come meet Jesus,” he says, adding that she plans ahead to shop so that she can talk with the grocery clerks.
Two-Degree Shifts
Rather than making evangelism a project that he participated in every now and then, Brady made it a lifestyle to be lived out daily. “I decided to make a ‘two-degree shift’—to make room for the nonbeliever in everything, and to expect nonbelievers to come,” he says.
He instructed his staff to embrace the same attitude. He began to get the message out to his congregation. The goal was for everyone at Glen Ellyn Bible to share his or her faith weekly and pray for the lost daily.
All church programming needed to have an “evangelistic flair,” he says. For example, the church’s men’s Bible study had always been aimed at believers. The two-degree shift emphasized that participants should invite friends and neighbors—believers or not—and that the group should welcome and make room for them.
Like Benkert, making room for nonbelievers required Brady to make it a priority. His most difficult challenge was changing his calendar.
“I realize now how self-serving I was in my schedule,” he says. He opened up time to build relationships with people outside the church. He began to teach a class at a local community college. And he changed his perspective on his social life.
For example, Brady explains, a pastor might think, What are my plans for dinner Friday night? Maybe I’ll have some friends over. There’s nothing wrong with that—but if there’s a consistent practice of only socializing with good friends, you’re not making room for people who are in your circle and who do not know Jesus, says Brady.
Neighborly Evangelism
Weyerhaeuser challenged his church to host backyard barbecues on Labor Day weekend and invite their neighbors—whether or not they had met them before. The whole congregation was asked to map out their neighborhood and go door to door with an invitation to an event in their home. Then they were to find out one thing they shared in common with their new acquaintances, and just have fun.
True, inviting strangers into their homes caused more than a few members to be uneasy—including their gregarious senior pastor. “I felt nervous passing out the invitations at first,” says Weyerhaeuser. “Then when most people thanked me, I realized they had a desire to connect, too.”
The event was a hit, and not because of Weyerhaeuser’s magic tricks. (He was a bartender and magician in his unbelieving college days.) What constituted success was building new friendships.
“I used to know the names of about nine of my neighbors,” says Weyerhaeuser. “Now I know 35.”
Lakeland Church has become known for its neighborly evangelism—the kind some experts are labeling as “organic” or “natural.”
Generating Curiosity
It pays to understand the needs of the community. With a population of 5,500, Dowagiac is a stop on the drive from Kalamazoo, Michigan, 45 miles to the northeast, and South Bend, Indiana, 25 miles to the southwest.
“It’s a transitional town,” says Benkert. “There are more people moving through than staying, more renters than owners. I have nine months to help people find Jesus and prep them before they move on.”
Yet, “people feel connected here,” he says. “When they leave they check back with us and tell us stories.”
Benkert teaches his people to approach new relationships in what he calls discovery mode. “Find out what excites them, where they’re at. Postmoderns, early millennials, have no trust in the church. Get them to trust you. Help them become curious.”
Collaborating for Change
Benkert recommends finding a few others with whom to share the vision. “Build a team. It’s not a lone-wolf thing,” he says.
The pastor leads a cohort of fellow senior denominational leaders who share a vision of “culture change” and meet regularly to support and challenge each other. “We share the vision of culture change,” he says.
Brady’s church is partnering with Young Life and looking for other connections.
Weyerhaeuser is part of a group of senior leadership among churches in Gurnee, Illinois, which borders Waukegan, Illinois, 40 miles north of Chicago. The pastors are partners, not competitors. (See ChristTogether.com.)
“We realized that collectively, we are responsible for every household in Gurney. We are only one church,” Weyerhaeuser says. For example, the group has organized multichurch Bible study groups in their communities.
Weyerhaeuser reminds his church that in every book in the Bible, everywhere in Scripture, is the message of outreach. Christian leadership needs to help everyone live the life, not just “evangelists.”
“Jesus had a heart for all the nations and he sent us out,” he says. “We need to live out John 3:16.”