Join us in Mongolia for an evangelistic mission trip.

We have been developing a relationship with several ministries in Mongolia. We will spend several days doing evangelism in cities and villages with the goal of gathering the ripe into discovery groups connected with church planters in the area. We will also host several trainings for pastors, planters and campus ministry leaders in the evenings.

Time is short! We need to know if you want to join us by January 17. Reply to this email to let us know!

Here's What's Next for us in India

1. Youth Training Trip - In Fall of 2025 we will return to India to continue Level 1 & 2 trainings. We will also add a young adult training component geared toward mobilizing Christians ages 18-26 to start Discovery Groups and House churches in their circles of influence.

2. We also hope to start sending direct evangelism and personal equipping trips over to help with starting new groups for young people. There is so much potential for impact.

3. Supporting 12 Micro-Business Projects that will enable House Church leaders with multiple churches under them. These businesses will generate income for their families so they can devote more time to ministry.  The businesses will also "pay it forward" to other leaders under them.

Church Planters Training Conference in New England

The 2-day training in the Boston area on the Harvest Like Jesus Principles was well received. Pray for them as they seek to practically apply.

Did you know we have a podcast?
For the Harvest - With the Worcesters podcast
John, David, and Paul discuss different evangelistic strategies for starting groups and growing churches and ministries.

Episode 4 has launched and we will continue posting new content around the 1st of each month.

Check out the latest podcast below!

Want to join us in Mongolia in Spring 2025?

We are taking a team to Mongolia from April 25 to May 4, 2025. This trip will consist of both boots-on-the-ground evangelism by day, and church planter training by night. We are looking for team members who are willing to do discovery evangelism alongside translators and help us host the training meetings in the evening. Please let us know as soon as possible if you are interested in joining us. We are opening up these spots first to our supporters and newsletter members.

For your prayers and planning, we anticipate a cost of around $4,000 per team member. Please also let us know if you'd like to donate toward the cost of another Team Member's trip.

Worcester grandchild #12: Emma Faith
Headed to Kaosiuing, Taiwan Jan. 12

Diane and I are headed to Taiwan January 12th to help with Andy and Cassia's growing family and Island's Church.  We are hoping to do some consulting with the new Islands Church and train ministry leaders while there.  Check out Youtube: AndyinTaiwan  and Islands Church  

 Prayer Requests

A new housing situation for John and Diane in Santee, CA, (a suburb of San Diego), where David just became the pastor of Pathways Church. Why the move? Diane is beginning to have some health challenges, so we will be moving in next door to David and Jessica.  Lord willing, we plan on building an ADU next to their house, which has an unusually large side yard for a suburb. Please pray for both remodeling their house and building our ADU, for wise decisions and favor with those involved in this process, and to guide us in the best health approaches and actionable applications for Diane.

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Last Harvest Rally 2024

Our largest Rally of the year. 70 showed up for equipping to be sent out to start Discovery Groups. It is exciting to see committed harvesters from several ministries coming together for the Great Commission cause.

Want to join us in Mongolia in Spring 2025?

We are taking a team to Mongolia from April 25 to May 4, 2025. This trip will consist of both boots-on-the-ground evangelism by day, and church planter training by night. We are looking for team members who are willing to do discovery evangelism alongside translators and help us host the training meetings in the evening. Please let us know as soon as possible if you are interested in joining us. We are opening up these spots first to our supporters and newsletter members.
For your prayers and planning, we anticipate a cost of around $4,000 per team member. Please also let us know if you'd like to donate toward the cost of another Team Member's trip.

Prayer Requests

• John and Stephen fly out of LAX on Saturday, November 16. Jerry, Diana and Hannah fly out on November 22.  Please pray for safe and efficient travel and a fruitful time in India.
• A new housing situation for John and Diane in Santee, CA,  where David just became the pastor of Pathways Church. Why the move? Diane is beginning to have some health challenges, so we will be moving in next door to David and Jessica. We plan on building an ADU next to their main house, Lord willing. Please Pray for remodeling and building decisions.

Stephen and I are going back to India.

Right after the Relevate Conference in Huntington Beach with the 17:6 Network, Stephen and I will fly to India. Lord willing, we have four, 2-day training sessions with about 100 leaders of house church networks. Additionally, Jerry & Diana Conner, and Hannah Daniel (Stephen's wife) will joining us for part of the trip to put on a 3 day marriage conference for 40 couples who have been serving in this ministry for 3 years or more. Please pray for protection for all involved, and for smooth travels. We've already had some of our flights get canceled without notifying us.

This picture represents what it is all about: New believers following Christ. This was a baptism done a couple of weeks ago. Two of these five men are in John's SDSU student Discovery Group. Now four of John's six DBS group members have been baptized since the group began a few months ago. The two young men on the right are also in a Discovery Group started by a man who became a Christian at Compass Church at SDSU. It is very exciting to see the multiplication of new life.

Harvest Teams International
now has three strategies to accelerate evangelistic growth globally

• Teams going on Harvest Trips
• Teams conducting Harvest Like Jesus Training
• Teams planting Discovery Groups and Churches

We are developing and using two tools that are already reaching people and raising up evangelistic harvest workers. First are Discovery Groups: These are small interactive Bible reading, discussion and application groups designed in way that a wide range of people can lead them. They are especially helpful for those who are seekers or are new to the faith.

The second tool is a local Harvest Team. This team is made of disciples who are all committed to reaching out to faith beginers and starting Discovery Groups. These groups are for equipping and encouraging Harvest Workers.

Harvest Teams are currently beginning to function in several places

San Diego already has 6 Harvest Teams with about five leaders in each starting discovery groups. There are four teams in other areas around the USA and one in Mongolia. Dozens of faith beginners are moving towards Christ or getting established in their faith in these groups.

Pray for David and Jessica Worcester as David became the pastor of Pathways Church, Santee, in the San Diego area. Phil (left) and Anne Herrington have grown Pathways for 31 years since its early months. They baptized 1300 people over their 31 years. Phil now has a new calling.  

Pray also for Cameron Pacheco who has become the pastor of Compass Church, which David started on the campus of SDSU 6 years ago.  

Prayer Requests:

Wisdom as we navigate the waters of several new Harvest Teams starting currently
For the upcoming training trips to India and New England
A potential new housing situation for John and Diane
Joseph and Colleen Worcester in Indonesia to have the grace to move to a new home because of problems with their current house
Pray for the safety of Andy and Cassia's family as a hurricane is due to hit their city of Kaoshuing, Taiwan today. Their high-rise apartment is on a river near the coast.

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Introducing: Harvest Team Kickstarter Cohorts

Above is a snapshot of the first all-online Harvest Team Kickstarter Cohort interest meeting with a group of planters in New England. This will be a 6-week training cohort that equips and encourages evangelistic starters to:

 
(1) Start Discovery Bible Groups* (DBGs) and
(2) Equip others to start DBGs of their own


These cohorts include six, 90-minute weekly video calls with action steps in between, such as watching videos, reading content, and making personal ministry plans.
We do some orientation pre-training, but most equipping occurs “as you plant” during the 6 weeks.

*A Discovery Bible Group is an easily reproducible group process that provides a relational way to give family, friends, and unsaved persons of peace direct exposure to the powerful Word of God.

We envision using our podcasts and seminars to find those who are ready to join a Kickstarter Cohort; followed by ongoing coaching and encouragement as they multiply DBGs in their Harvest Fields.

Are you a ministry leader who wants to start a Harvest Team in your mission field?
Let us know! 

Neighborhood Discovery Bible Group


Eight people from John & Diane's near neighbor group came to Pathways Church to hear John preach. None have been to this church in the past. Two or three never go to church, and others (except one teen) are not highly involved in church yet. They represent lot of potential. We love our neighbors!

Our 2nd Podcast is out! Episode 2 of the "For the Harvest- With the Worcesters" podcast has been released on video.

This month's topic is: NEW WINESKINS

We will begin releasing the audio version on your favorite Podcast sites on September 1.

Diane Worcester enjoying time with some special ladies which happened to represent the ministries started since starting Mission Trails Church, in 2008, in the San Diego area. 

Dana Morgan Thorsell, center, (intern and Mission Trails launch team, then on plant lead team with sons David and Andy Worcester, to start Christian Challenge SDSU student ministry); Carly Walters, top right, (pastor's wife of Kyle, who became the long term pastor at Mission Trails after it was planted). Jessica Navarre Worcester, bottom left, (on 2008 volunteer team from Pathways Church to help start first service at Mission Trails Church, and stayed the duration). Mission Trails sent David to plant Compass Church on SDSU campus, and Shanni Pacheco, bottom right, (current Compass Church staff and women's leader).

Prayer Requests:

• Boldness for the dozens of leaders committing to start Discovery Bible Groups and churches in San Diego, Kansas City, New England, and Mongolia.
• Ability and workers to advance effectively through the strategic doors God is opening up for us.
• Training material preparation and translation would come together for the several training conferences in India in November.  
• Scalable, reproducible systems for training church planters in evangelism, discipleship and leadership training.

New Video Update, New Name, New Podcast! Join Us on a Spring 2025 Trip!
Check out the video below to hear our updates and celebrate what God has been doing in 2024!

After launching last year, we have seen God do some amazing things:

Completed 5 Harvest Trips:

• 3 international trips including 6 multi-day trainings
• Several shorter training sessions in 5 additional cities
• Over 750 pastors and future church planters trained
• 2 US-based trips for accelerating the evangelistic work of Church Planter

We've Graduated to a New Name

We are still committed to sending Harvest Trips around the globe, but we needed to communicate the wider scope of what we are doing. Trips involve teams, but we are also discovering and developing Harvest Teams to do evangelism and invite people into Bible groups where they live. We equip and send these teams to make disciples both locally and globally.

Our New Podcast is Live!
To advance our training capabilities, we are starting a podcast to inspire people with our "Harvest Like Jesus" Principles. The first sessions will focus on discovery evangelism and starting new wineskins.

Join us spring 2025 in Mongolia!
We invite you to join our team on a Harvest Trip to Mongolia this coming spring! We are planning specifics now to return to Mongolia to do outreach through discovery evangelism.

We are opening up this opportunity to you, our dear prayer warriors, readers and supporters, to join with us. More details to come, but reply to this email if you'd like to hear more!

Prayer Requests:

• Pray for the leaders committing themselves to starting Discovery Bible Studies.
• Pray for our trips to India in the Fall, and Mongolia in the spring.
• Pray for John's training of church planters from five New England states in December.
• Pray for the launch of our new podcast.
• Pray for wisdom for how to wisely use the resources God has supplied to launch this ministry. Global needs are overwhelming and we want to invest what you have entrusted to us carefully.

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John and Stephen were in Mongolia May 9th - 21st. The picture above is the 4:30 am "jet lag" picture of Ulaanbaater from our hotel. Notice the mix of modern buildings and traditional round gerts or yurts. Below are some pictures of a few of our training opportunities with key leaders from the country's two major cities.

They told us our training was quite valuable and are eager for us to come back and help them get back to the evangelistic effectiveness they were blessed with in the 1990s and early 2000s.  A couple of young men said they were inspired to begin putting into practice the principle of starting new groups/bible studies designed for and filled with faith beginners.

Taiwan Harvest Team
Compass Church in San Diego also finished an Evangelism Harvest Trip to Taiwan. David Worcester led a team to assist with Andy Worcester's Islands Church. They shared the gospel with dozens of people and encouraged members of Andy's new church. They all said it was a great experience and they loved the Taiwanese people.

Kansas City Harvest Trip Rescheduled for June 21-23

After severe weather cancelled our first attempt in Kansas City (Parkville, to be exact), we rescheduled for this coming weekend. Hope Church in Fort Worth, TX is sending a team to help Stephen Daniel's RiverPark Church with launching a new church plant in the area. They will spend the weekend doing discovery evangelism, setting up gospel appointments and hosting an outreach event.

Please pray for a fruitful time, to be connected with those seeking Christ, and empowered teamwork between the two churches.

Big Picture of Current State of Harvest Trips (Teams)
The Blue funnel represents the churches feeding Harvest workers into our Harvest Team that is currently working in five Harvest fields with more to come. We are equipping and mobilizing workers to start Discovery Bible Studies in each of the mission fields.

We had an extra 4 weeks with our newest grandson Jakin 
Colleen had a successful emergency gallbladder surgery, so Joseph and his family stayed another month for recovery . Grateful to enjoy their company. They are now back in Indonesia.

Pray for Mongolia trip - May 9-21
John and Stephen leave TOMORROW, Thursday for the training with several groups of pastors and church planters in two major cities. Some will come from remote areas. We deeply appreciate your prayers while we're gone. We also will be consulting with strategic leaders and student workers on several university campuses.

A San Diego Harvest Team Rally of Discovery Bible Study (DBS) starters
This recent training event was for recruiting and teaching DBS group starters.  About 30 came to this one and over 50 to a second one. We now have over 30 people committed to starting a group of their own. These leaders will be in training group as they lead their groups. They just need to be one step ahead of those they recruit to read, discuss and apply the Bible together.

It is very exciting to watch God pull this together!

DBS First Fruits
Here are four of the five members of John's Discovery Bible study. Four of the five are faith beginners. Two have made commitments to Christ and have been baptized since the groups started about two months ago. The group is becoming close and have named themselves "The Compadres". They are a refreshing encouragement.

Worcester Family News

Our grandson Samuel got baptized this month by our son David.


Also: Joseph, Colleen, Boaz and Jakin move back to Indonesia next week.

Due to Severe Weather, Kansas City - Trip is Postponed

Severe weather caused our trip to Kansas City to be postponed from Hope Church. With many events planned for outside, it didn't make sense to keep the same dates. We're already honing in on new dates to do it soon! Pray for wisdom.

Prayer Requests:

• Pray for the training trip to Mongolia May 9-21. Ask God for safe travels, via an overnight stop in Istanbul, for smooth logistics, good health, and that the leaders would be receptive and engaged to hear and apply God's Word across the country.
• Pray for growth for the new converts and leaders from our Discovery Bible Studies in San Diego and Kansas City.
• Pray for wisdom and grace as men and women step up and lead out at Compass on SDSU campus and at Pathways Church.

Preparing for Mongolia - May 9-21
John and Stephen are coordinating logistics with our Mongolian friends for the training with 50 pastors and church planters.  Plus, we've developed a training notebook that is being translated now into Mongolian!

Harvest Trip - Kansas City, MO
April 26-28 Hope Church in Fort Worth, TX is sending a team of 6 to help a new church plant connected with Stephen Daniel's church near Kansas City. This new church plant will be called Upstream Church and will be led by Bobby Skinner, who has been with Stephen since the start of RiverPark Church. Meet Bobby, Jewel and Newcomb!

This Kansas City Harvest Trip will focus on discovering people who are ripe and gathering them into Discovery Bible Studies within their community. Please pray that the rain holds off during the weekend the team comes, and that the Lord allows for many gospel conversations.

Taiwan Trip
May 24-June 3
Compass Church, SDSU, San Diego is sending a Harvest Trip to help Andy and Cassia Worcester with planting Islands Church. The pictures above are from the new evangelistic youth group Islands Church is starting up now.

Becoming a Battle-Ready Man
John taught this group of men at Pathways Church in Santee, CA to become ready for the spiritual battles of everyday life.  David and John are paving the way for the launch of many new Discovery Bible Studies which we believe will spearhead the advance of the kingdom in San Diego County.

Worcester Family News

Diane and our newest grandson Jakin enjoying each other. Jakin is Joseph and Colleen's second son. They are going back to Indonesia in May. Pray for God to open even more open doors of ministry in their city, Bandung.

Prayer Requests:

• Pray for the trips to Mongolia, Taiwan, and the Kansas City area
• Pray for many to come to Christ through the multiplication of Discovery Bible Studies
• Pray for men and women to step up and lead out as Compass and Pathways partner together in a closer way in the San Diego Area

Local San Diego Harvest Team - Discovery Bible Study Training

We held two training times last week on how to start Discovery Bible Studies (DBS). About 31 attended these meetings and 17 wanted to be equipped while starting a new group of their own. A few are already organizing their first meetings.

Diane and I personally just started two Discovery Bible Studies with faith beginners. One group was with two neighborhood couples.  One man had never read the first chapter of John before and asked a lot of questions. John also started a group with four college students; two unbelievers and two new believers. One received Christ last week.

A DBS provides a simple way to lead, in a discussion format, a group through any passage of scripture. DBS groups are easy to reproduce and versions of them are being used to start movements around the world. Pray for this exciting initiative. What we learn while starting these groups will be used in our international trainings as well.

Taiwan Harvest Team is preparing

This training time led by John Worcester focused on how to walk in the fullness of the Holy Spirit and faith.  3 young adults zoomed in from Texas and Los Angeles. This team, mainly from Compass Church, is going to help Andy and Cassia Worcester make disciples to fold into Islands Church. David Worcester is leading and they will depart in late May.

Kansas City, MO
In April, a Harvest Team from Hope Church in Fort Worth is preparing to go help start a church being planted out of Stephen Daniel's church, RiverPark Church, in the Kansas City, MO area.

Mongolia

May 9-21, John and Stephen will train 50 top Mongolian church leaders on How to Harvest Like Jesus. They will also explore other evangelistic and church planter training opportunities.

Prayer Requests:

• Pray for the future trips above.
• Pray for the training notebook to come together for the Mongolian trip and future international trips.
• Pray for many to come to Christ with these new Discovery Bible Studies.

We were especially excited to get to spend 6 days with an anointed movement leader. He has spearheaded two movements which now have 28,000 churches over the last 18 years. He was humble and teachable. He and the top ten leaders of his newest, six year-old ministry responded well to our training. We were surprised that God gave us words which were helpful to such sharp leaders. They were already doing many of the things we focus on in our Harvest Like Jesus training, and we were able to give them a more solid scriptural basis for what the Spirit is doing in their midst.  

We were able to provide two full days of training with the top leaders in one of the regions and one other group of 25 leaders from another region. It was exhilarating. After many last minute changes because of persecution and some sickness, we were still able to train and meet with 6 different church networks that make up tens of thousands of churches with over 400,000 members across India.

Another answer to prayer was that we honed in on our “Harvest like Jesus” training materials and now have multiple updated versions for teaching in situations from over 1 hour to 2 days. The network above is planning to build it into their normal training for the entire network and will translate it into many of the languages used in their churches.

God is doing a mighty work in India, and we are overjoyed that we got to play a part, thanks to Mark Jappe for the invitation to go to India, and for an Indian pastor named Bala who facilitated the first half of our trip. Also thank you for your giving and your prayer support.

Upcoming Trips
We are now both preparing for a 3-day conference for 50+ pastors and church planters in Mongolia. This is another key church network that we hope to encourage and help with the “Harvest like Jesus” principles from scripture.

Also in the spring we are sending a team to the Kansas City area to help Stephen’s church with a new plant.  This team will be doing discovery evangelism.  

Next, we will be sending an international Harvest Trip to Taiwan with a young adult team from Compass Church in San Diego led by David Worcester.

Prayer Requests

• For the many church leaders we met with in India: Pray that God will use His truth to accelerate Kingdom growth across the country, that disciples would be made and new churches started and helped as a result of our time there.
• Pray for the church network incorporating our principles into their training.
• Pray for future trip preparations, recruiting the right people, and the many details involved.

John & Diane with older sons:  David (R) with his twin Paul (L) who stopped by to visit after having the honor of speaking at California Baptist University Chapel. He taught students about: “Praying for Bob”

B=Burden for the lost

O=Opportunities to share Christ

B=Boldness

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Most agree that evangelistic growth has slowed to a trickle. Only slightly faster than the line at the DMV. Few adults are coming to Christ and even fewer are incorporating into local churches.  

Why is evangelistic growth so slow? This question should keep us up at night.  

Many are proposing reasons for this sluggishness, but there is one major reason that is rarely talked about.  

Evangelistic growth is slow because so few are practicing DISCOVERY EVANGELISM.  

What is discovery evangelism? Discovery evangelism is meeting tons of people and preaching the gospel broadly in order to harvest those who are ripe for the gospel.  

A careful study of the first four chapters of John’s gospel shows us how Jesus used discovery evangelism during the first few weeks of starting His movement. He demonstrated discovery evangelism, and then He taught about it.  

In Jesus’ very first recorded training time with his future church planters, He taught them about discovery evangelism:  

Do you not say, ‘There are still four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I tell you, raise your eyes and observe the fields, that they are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the one who sows and the one who reaps may rejoice together. For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have come into their labor.” John 4:35-38  

Discovery evangelism requires trusting Christ’s words, “the fields are white for harvest.” It involves faith to believe it is possible to find some who are ready to respond.  

It does not require four months of relationship building and serving before sharing the gospel. The slow relational approach is what I call “cultivative evangelism,” which we will explore later.  

Church planters are reapers who stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before them. They capitalize on the cultivative labors of others.  

To better understand discovery evangelism let’s look at two types of discovery evangelism and then contrast these with three other types of evangelism.

Five types of effective evangelism are: personal discovery evangelism, corporate discovery evangelism, oikos evangelism, cultivative evangelism, and sending evangelism. All five are vital strategies and need to be focused upon at different stages of church life.  

1. Personal Discovery Evangelism  

Personal discovery evangelism is when an individual evangelist or church planter searches for those God has prepared for salvation. They go out to seek and save those who are “ripe for harvest.”  

Jesus practiced personal discovery evangelism by repeatedly visiting a gathering of the most open unsaved people in His God-assigned target group (John 1:19-36). Jesus invited a couple of the most teachable of John the Baptist’s disciples to spend the afternoon with Him. At this home meeting, He explained that He was the Messiah (John 1:37-41).  

In John 3, Jesus had a gospel appointment with a religious leader named Nicodemus, who was seeking. In John 4, Jesus met and shared the good news with a broken woman searching for fulfillment.  

In each of these situations, Jesus did not build deep relationships for many months before proclaiming the gospel. He quickly got to the good news and there was an immediate response because God had prepared their hearts.  

An example of personal discovery evangelism:  

When we moved to California to plant our second church, we started by using cultivative evangelism exclusively. We met some neighbors and shared the gospel with them. They were open to friendship, but not ready to come to Christ. After a couple of months, we realized this approach would be too slow to get a church going in a reasonable amount of time.  

So we switched our focus to discovery evangelism. We began going door to door doing listening surveys. We asked people about the needs of the community and getting their opinion as to why many people do not go to church.  

We were searching for those whom God had already prepared. Not all were open, but through this sifting process we found some who were. Here is one story:  

I knocked on the door of a young man named John. He was about 30, and like many native Californians, had never been involved in church.

The night before I arrived, he had a loaded gun and was contemplating suicide. But God graciously reached out to John. While he was in the shower, God impressed upon him that He was going to reveal Himself.  

That next day I showed up. John saw it as a sign from God and listened to the gospel. He came to our Bible study next door, along with another couple we met surveying. Within a couple of weeks, both John and his live-in girlfriend accepted Christ.  

Two doors down, we met another young couple living together. They also came to the Bible study and committed their lives to Christ! Long story short, both couples were baptized, were our first two church weddings, joined the planting team, and later became leaders in the church for several decades.  

If I had not done intentional personal discovery evangelism, I, most likely, would not have met John. The majority of the 97 adults we baptized the first two and a half years of the church plant were first met through our surveying efforts.  

My sons, who also practice discovery evangelism, call this “going on spiritual treasure hunts” to find prepared people who are already ready to receive the gospel.  

2. Corporate Discovery Evangelism  

In addition to personal gospel conversations, Jesus regularly preached to large crowds. John 4:39-42 is one example.  

Throughout history, God has empowered evangelistic preachers to draw the net on crowds of unsaved people. Just think of how God used the preachers of the Reformation, as well as movement makers like Wesley.  

More recently, we have witnessed the Billy Graham crusades and the harvest crusades of the Jesus Movement. We have also seen the seeker-oriented weekend services of the 80’s and 90’s. Over and over we see God using large group evangelistic events to draw many people to Himself. We should never underestimate the awesome power of the preaching of the gospel to crowds (Romans 1:16-17).  

An example of corporate discovery evangelism:  

Our third church plant, Seabreeze, is an example of corporate discovery evangelism. We were sent to plant a new church by our second church plant less than ten minutes away with five young Christians. This was in Huntington Beach, an older suburb of Los Angeles known as a church planting graveyard.  In my impatience, I led our team to launch the church too soon and it flopped. We had only one guest from our target community and that young man even ended up joining our sending church. I was discouraged, but God gave the following Scripture to one of the young Christians on our launch team.  

The end of a matter is better than its beginning; Patience of spirit is better than arrogance of spirit. Eccel. 7:8  

So with renewed faith, we started over. This time, we spent three months doing personal discovery evangelism. We did door to door surveys with hundreds of people in our community and had two important results. We gained a better understanding of how the unsaved thought, and we enlarged our launch team by reaching new people from the target community.  

Now we were ready to relaunch our corporate discovery evangelism strategy. Our original planting team had two men with unique gifts. One was an excellent marketer and the other was a cartoonist. The three of us created an innovative invitation to our first public service. It was designed entirely to appeal to unsaved adults, especially men.  

We were short on cash, so we asked our launch team members to give six months of their tithe in advance and many did! We raised $3000. We sent out 35,000 invitations and 165 people showed up at our first service at a community center.  

Two months later, we did a follow up introductory service and had 240 show up. We grew from 30 to over 200 in about three months from our launch date. It was extremely exciting for us.  

We wondered if those who were coming were churched people or unchurched people. So one Sunday morning, we surveyed those attending. We found that 80% of those attending had not been attending church for five years or more. We had hit our target audience!  

Another important part of corporate discovery evangelism is involving as many people as possible in serving together to better reach people on Sunday mornings. We worked hard at this and at the six month mark after our launch, we had 100 adults serving in one of our two Sunday services. The vast majority of these workers were faith beginners from the ranks of the unchurched.  

Seabreeze, now led by Bevan Unrau, is now one of the stronger churches in Huntington Beach with over 1,000 regularly attending.  

3. Oikos Evangelism  

Oikos or “household” evangelism is when disciples reach out to those already in their sphere of influence, such as family, friends, and coworkers.

This is an especially powerful evangelistic strategy for new disciples because they have many trusted relationships with unsaved people. Oikos evangelism gives you access to people you wouldn’t otherwise know.  

Andrew and Philip were our first two heroes of oikos evangelism (John 1:41-52). After being convinced about Jesus, the first thing Andrew did was find his brother Simon and tell him “We found the Messiah.”  

Likewise, Philip invited his friend Nathanael to “come and see” who Jesus was.  Also, the woman at the well in John 4:29-30 was a “super spreader” in Samaria inviting many she knew to come listen to Jesus.  

An example of Oikos evangelism: 

In our first church plant, I met an unsaved man, named Gary, in our apartment complex. I built a relationship with him and he came to our first Easter service in the apartment clubhouse.  

After the service, he came over to my house and I shared the gospel with him. He accepted Christ and I asked him the oikos question: “Who do you know that might be interested in Christ?” He said his wife. So the two of us went to their apartment and shared the gospel with her, and she came to Christ.  

Then I asked Gary, “Who else do you know that might be interested?” He answered, “my brother Jerry.” So we called him and set up an appointment with him that week. Jerry also committed his life to Christ, as did his wife. These two couples became key members of this church plant.  

I had to spend a lot of effort to win Gary over a period of time, but the next three came to Christ quickly. Why? Because they each had a trust relationship with Gary.  

4. Cultivative Evangelism  

Cultivative evangelism is the “four months and then comes the harvest” type of evangelism introduced above. It is the most popular approach today. Unfortunately, it has become so popular, that many only focus on this one method. As a result, discovery evangelism has been ignored or disparaged.  

Vital ministries like loving neighbors, building friendships, compassion and justice ministries are examples of cultivative evangelism. All disciples are called to engage in these ways of being salt and light in the world, Matthew 5:16. Cultivative evangelism becomes more and more important as the church ages. Pastors are called to equip their church members to do it.

An example of cultivative evangelism:  

My wife Diane is a great example of cultivative evangelism. She intentionally meets all our neighbors, finds ways to serve them, and she listens to them. They fall in love with her and over time she is able to cultivate their hearts to respond to the gospel.  

Cultivative evangelism has the advantage over discovery evangelism, because it is better at reaching those who are hardest to reach. Plus, more people are willing to do cultivative evangelism. Cultivative evangelism is a wonderful tool.  

The disadvantage of cultivative evangelism is that it is by nature slow. Church planting is generally time sensitive. Church planters need to establish evangelistic momentum quickly. Therefore, it is generally best for planters to focus mostly on the speedier discovery evangelism.  

The younger the church, the more important discovery evangelism is; the older the church, the more important cultivative evangelism is. But at every stage of church life, it’s not EITHER/OR; it’s BOTH/AND.  

5. Sending Evangelism  

Sending evangelism is a powerful evangelistic strategy. It is when a church discovers, develops and deploys a church planter to start an evangelistic growth church. It is like sending a shepherd out to rescue lost sheep and develop a new church nearby. We plant churches to reach people.  

New churches, planted with evangelistic growth principles, are often filled with lots of other faith beginners. This creates a sticky environment that the unchurched and unsaved feel comfortable attending. They like learning with others who are at similar stages of spiritual development.  

The fastest evangelistic growth occurs when church planters major on personal and corporate evangelism during the first few years of their plants. We have seen a good number of new churches grow from 5 to 50 or 15 to 150 in a year. This a 1,000% annual growth rate. This is a much faster rate than the fastest growing mega-churches, which typically grow at about about 20% per year. It makes sense to me, using a bit of math, that church planting is the best way to fill the earth with local bodies of Christ.

There are three reasons why I am convinced that prioritizing personal and corporate discovery evangelism accelerates evangelistic growth.

First, the Biblical example of Jesus. Second, our repeated church planting experience. And third, we have seen it work in hundreds of church plants we have helped train and coach.  

In future articles, I plan to address other reasons evangelistic growth is so slow and how to accelerate it. Stay tuned!

Photo by Fauxels on Unsplash
And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. Luke 5:37-38

The term “faith beginner” refers to either an unsaved person or a newly converted disciple.    

Evangelistic growth is all about gathering faith beginners in order to win and then disciple them. It is quite different from the way the majority of churches grow today. Most attract Christians who are looking for something different, deeper or closer to home.  

Evangelistic growth starts with a different target and uses VERY different methods.  

As a sequential church planter, I have repeatedly started new evangelistic growth churches and ministries. These bodies of Christ often grew by adding 50%-80% faith beginners.  

Incorporating precious faith beginners is a vital church growth task.  

Pastors often say this about faith beginners: “They come once, but they rarely come back.”  Why is this?  We will look at three factors that shed some light. The Ratio Factor, the Hospitality Factor and the Responsibility Factor.  

Ratio Factor  
When I was a three-month-old Christian, God showed me the importance of ratios. I went back to my home town of Wellington, Ohio and started sharing Jesus with high school and college-age students. Some responded and I started a Bible study in the home of one of those faith beginners.  

Within a few weeks the group had outgrown the living room, so we multiplied to a second night. By the end of the summer we had about 30 attending weekly and had baptized nine. It was an exciting summer to say the least!  

One reason for this speed was that many of the faith beginners who came once kept coming over and over. Why? It was not my great, in-depth teaching or engaging personality. I was completely inexperienced, and pretty rough around the edges. I had not even been to a Bible study before, let alone taught one!  

I believe they came back because of the gracious working of God and because they felt comfortable coming to a meeting made up of mainly faith beginners. Actually, they were all new to the faith, even I was a new believer.  

For rapid evangelistic growth, the ratios must favor faith beginners. Here is a largely ignored principle:  

Faith beginners do not feel as comfortable learning in groups where everyone is way ahead of them.  

It is probably an ego factor. They do not want to be seen as spiritually ignorant. It’s the same reason we don’t put a first grader in the same class as a twelfth grader. Plus what and how they are taught differs.  

In some of our new churches comprised of mainly faith beginners, we have had comments like:  

• “I love this church because nobody else knows anything about the Bible either.”  
• “I love this church because nobody knows anybody else.”  

Some have criticized me for having so many spiritually immature people in our church plants, but I think that’s a great problem to have! It means you are actually reaching the people you set out to reach.  

Starting with a group of spiritual children is healthy as long as they continue to grow towards spiritual maturity.  

What if your current group is already filled with mainly veteran church goers?  

You have a few choices:  

1. Give up on evangelistic growth and focus on discipling Christians.  
2. Try to significantly overwhelm the group with a flood of faith beginners all at once. This could work, but is extremely hard to do. That’s why I recommend the third option.  
3. Discover, develop and deploy an evangelistic-minded starter.  

Encourage the leader to gather a very small team and send them out to start a new group. Equip them to use evangelistic growth principles. In another article, Why is Evangelistic Growth so Slow, we discuss some of these principles.  

In short, do a flurry of evangelism and invite many unchurched people to the first meeting. The goal is to start with a big bang and overwhelm the team with faith beginners.  

You are creating a funnel ministry not a pipe ministry. A pipe ministry puts all its energies into discipling a few, in hopes they will all become multipliers. Good luck with that.  

A funnel ministry sifts through many people at the top of the funnel in order to discover a few at the bottom of the funnel who will respond with full commitments to following Christ. This was characterized by the earthly ministry of Jesus.  

It takes many to find a few!  

In essence the ratio factor is about crafting a new wineskin. New wineskins are religious structures designed for new wine. New groups and new churches retain faith beginners better than older more established groups.  

And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. Luke 5:37-38  

Don’t spill the wine.

Hospitality Factor  
The word “hospitality” in the Bible literally means “loving strangers.”  

For years, in between planting churches, I have worked as a church growth consultant. One thing I do is visit churches like a secret shopper. I go to their Sunday services, but do not take initiative to speak to anyone.  

I simply make myself available to see how I will be treated. Before and after the service I go to the refreshment table just to hang around. I stand around right in the middle of where the church people are mingling as I sip my coffee for 10+ minutes.  

Can you guess what happens? In 8 out of 10 cases I am almost totally ignored by the regular attendees. No one talks to me apart from the official greeters and maybe a staff member.  

If I didn’t have an undercover purpose for doing this I would never put myself through so much pain. A few minutes of being ignored feels like hours.  

Often, I get with the pastor for lunch afterwards to debrief my experience. I ask them what is the strongest thing about their church. They often say, “we are noted for being such a friendly church.”  

Then I tell them about my experience. Ouch. They can hardly believe it. Typically, excuses are made about how those who usually talk to visitors missed church that day.  

I am not just talking about mega churches. I am also talking about churches of 50-150 people and even new church plants! The smaller the church, the bigger the problem of ignoring guests is. This issue must be solved.  

Don’t get me wrong, these members are not mean people. They are not rude. Sometimes they even nod at me as they walk by. They are just so focused on talking with their friends that it does not occur to them to pay attention to unattended guests.  

Maybe they have not been equipped to welcome visitors, or they just forget to do so. Maybe guests at this church are extremely rare. Whatever the reason, being ignored does not make most guests want to come back.  

This is just common sense, isn’t it? Unfortunately, common sense gets less and less common in our churches.    

In brand new churches, we encourage those who have been a couple of times to consider themselves regulars. We teach them to do unto others what they wished others would have done for them.  

We use a couple of simple tools. One is the 5-minute rule. During the first five minutes after the service we ask regulars to consider interacting with someone they do not yet know well. We don’t police this rule, but it does remind members to look out for the interests of others.  

Also, we use nametags in nearly all of our meetings. These are not traditional for most churches, but if used properly they work wonders. They remove so many barriers, especially for second time guests. Most people are terrible at remembering names, and the nametag bails them out.  

There is one more often overlooked factor that keeps newcomers coming back.

The Responsibility Factor  
Healthy people want to feel like they are contributing to the welfare of a group they are joining. They want to do something to earn their acceptance into the group.  

In our third church plant, a 30-year old unchurched, unsaved man responded to one of our invites and came to Sunday service. After the service he saw several men cheerfully taking down chairs and putting things away. He asked if he could help. The team leader said sure, and Ralph pitched in, and had a good time with the crew.    

The leader thanked him for helping and Ralph asked if he could help next week. The leader said that would be great, and Ralph became a regular part of the team. In a couple of weeks, he committed his life to Christ and later became a leader in the new church.  

Unfortunately, sometimes churches treat adult faith beginners more like children than valuable potential contributors. I have seen first time guests offer to bring refreshments and refreshment team leaders tell them. “Oh no, you do not need to do that. We will take care of everything, you just come back and enjoy the service.”  

Big mistake. Good intention, but bad for retention.  

One of the reasons faith beginners come back to church regularly is that they have a responsibility. If they have a task that others are depending on them to do, they are more likely to prioritize coming.  

We never pressure people to serve, but encourage it publicly and if they express interest we certainly do not turn them down.  

A very helpful tool is a connection card.  We give one out to everyone every week. Among other things, the card has a box to check that says: ___ Willing to help as needed.  

If anyone checks the box, we contact them that week. They are told about potential entry-level responsibilities and are asked if they want to try out a role on a team.  

In one new church plant, we had 100 out of 150 regular attending adults in serving positions within 6 months of our launch. 75% of these were faith beginners from the ranks of the unchurched.  

Quickly given out, small places of service helps turn attenders into contributors and is one of the reasons some of our new churches grew rapidly.  

Summary  
Faith beginners prefer learning with other faith beginners.  

Many faith beginners come to church because they want to make supportive friends. Ignoring them is a foolish, self-defeating strategy.  

Some faith beginners are willing to serve. Encourage this. It is good for them now and eternally. It is also good for the growth of the church.  

Apply these three factors wisely and I believe you will retain many more of the faith beginners who visit. Plus, they might be so excited about the church they will bring their unsaved friends when they come back.