Encouraging Community Involvement in Malden, Missouri
“One of our priorities is to be visible in the community,” says Dan Hargrave, minister of 140-attendee Stokelan Drive Christian Church in Malden, Mo. “As a smaller church, we’ve tried to partner with existing community events rather than start from scratch.” Like the annual Car Show and Chili Cook-Off in the fall: “We don’t have the resources to do this on our own,” he notes, “so volunteers from our congregation organize the parking and traffic-control portion of the event. We run our shuttle buses for those who have to park their vehicles a distance from the event as a service to those attending.”
As a result, Hargrave says, those who regularly attend the event now “look” for Stokelan Drive to provide this service. “Often we are the first faces those attending see,” he says. “They know [we’re] going to be there. It’s an attitude we want to cultivate in the minds of our town’s residents.”
In fact, he says, one neighbor told Hargrave that Stokelan Drive was encouraging other churches in town to be more active in the community. “I was very pleased to hear those words,” he says. “It told me we’re on the right track.”
And in a culture (including a church culture) that craves success, Hargrave has a different take. “Too often we’re more concerned with success than we are with obedience,” he says. “I remind my congregation from time to time that the Great Commission was directed to every believer. Therefore, it is directed to every church, as well. It’s OK to start small. The important thing is to do something.”
Still, he recognizes the importance of evangelism effectiveness, and Hargrave says it all hinges on leading nonbelievers to Christ—that’s “preeminent,” he notes.
(3) Discipleship
Investing in, building and equipping regular church attendees to be Christ followers
Training Disciples in San Diego
“The best way we are reaching people is through investing in the people we have, teaching them to evangelize their friends and families,” says Matt Smith, lead pastor of Barabbas Road Church in San Diego, which has about 200 attendees each weekend. “So often the focus is on the outside, but we have found that by really equipping the people we have, we see more people come to Christ and our church. The idea is that a real disciple of Christ begets another disciple of Christ.”
One way this is accomplished is by emphasizing to church members the importance of personally responding to the sermons—most notably encouragement via Facebook and other social media—to ensure that “God’s story is being shared as it plays out” in church members’ lives. And rather than holding multiple teaching events during the week, Smith says, “We want to move the whole church as a unit in applying the sermons.”
Smith says he can detect deeper walks among church members to this end by their collective increased interest in and commitment to prayer: “We’re seeing God answer prayers,” he says. “It increases the faith of the whole body and we rely more on Him.”
Signs cover the interior of the Barabbas Road sanctuary that hammer home the five crucial steps believers in Christ are called to take:
Step one: Invest your life in Christ.
Step two: Invest your life in the Bible.
Step three: Invest your life in others.
Step four: Invest your life in worship.
Step five: Invest your life in disciple making.
What step do you need to take?
Smith isn’t big on traditional metrics as far as evangelism effectiveness goes. He does look at how many people are involved in small groups, but other than that, he keeps the rest of the stats “pretty low-key.” Instead, Smith says, “I want stories from my people of what God is doing.”
