by Terry Barone

RIVERSIDE - Effective outreach is "not just sending out postcards," but empowering churches and their members to reach their communities for Jesus Christ, according to the founder of a national marketing organization.

Scott Evans, founder of outreach.com, led a workshop during the On Target Evangelism Conference Feb. 22, defining outreach as the process of building bridges to the unchurched in order to more effectively share the gospel of Christ.

Most of those attending the workshop agreed it is easier to "build bridges" today in the US because of the financial and moral crisis. Evans said now is a great time to use the four laws of effective outreach which include creating an identity for outreach, attracting visitors by communicating that identity, connecting attenders to the church and equipping members to be "inviters."

"Churches that are growing have all four of these in place and work well," Evans noted. "In churches we've studied who are not experiencing outreach it's because one or more of these laws is broken."

He said outreach is about building bridges into the community. "Many times churches have an 'inreach' identity, instead of an 'outreach' identity," Evans explained, adding that churches in North America must create an identity for outreach since it is the only continent where Christianity is not growing, where half of all churches last year did not add one new member through conversion and where church attendance has decreased 9.5 percent in the last decade while the population has increased 11.4 percent.

Evans also noted eight steps for building an outreach identity:

• praying for God's heart for the community and developing a mission statement that reflects that heart
• understanding the demographics and needs of the people in the community
• taking an inventory of the gifts and abilities of church members
• taking an inventory of resources in the church
• taking an inventory of ministries in the church
• researching what ministries and organizations with which the church can partner in the community
• building short- and long-term bridges to the community
• updating the church's "brand" - name, logo and communication pieces - to clearly reflect its current identity

Though outreach is "relational," according to Evans, there must be a compelling atmosphere to return to the church. "Within the first five minutes of visiting (from the parking lot to the pew) a visitor has already decided whether he will return to your church or not."

Evans added, "Only 21 percent of active church-goers invite anyone to church in the course of a year and only 20 percent of church members invite an unchurched person to church."

He concluded by saying church leaders must do a better job of equipping their members to be inviters by creating an "outreach culture" and providing tools (invitation cards, books, Bibles, etc.) for members to use when inviting others to attend.