Because Approach

 

WHAT IS THE BECAUSE APPROACH?

The Because Approach is for everyone who is involved in a local church, in any capacity and has a passion to develop clear biblical and contextual plans for outreach and evangelism. This strategic process can help you formulate a culture of evangelism at the heart of your church and a joined-up strategy of evangelism activities appropriate to your context.

WHY BECAUSE?

The Because Approach doesn’t assume any particular church setting but will help you analyse your unique situation by starting with the biblical mandates for every church which can then be applied through context specific strategies. The Because Approach raises three ‘why’ questions and offers three ‘because’ answers:

  • Why do this at all? Because Scripture says ...

  • Why do this here and now? Because our setting is ...  

  • Why do it this way, not that way? Because the solution we’ve agreed is ...

THE APPROACH

The Because Approach is a step by step process for creating intentional evangelism plans based around three questions: why, where and who . This page summarises each step and contains downloadable study guides for each step.

Vision begins with a divine disturbance of what breaks our heart with compassion and agitates us to action. This becomes clearer as we pair the motivation to act with a clear idea of why and how God has called us as a church to act in a particular way. In other words, vision is established when we understand the unique kingdom-building contribution God is calling us to make and the resources he has given us for the task. 

A great mission statement provides a fixed, overarching, and long-term goal against which churches can measure all strategies and activities. All mission statements have at their core the two timeless biblical missions of the church — to make and grow disciples — or, as it’s often put, ‘to know Christ and to make him known’. But the wording of a particular church’s mission statement will reflect its character and context.

The first step in forming a vision that is both biblical and appropriate to your context is to identify the unique contribution God is calling you to make to his mission. That starts with identifying the potential mission fields in which God has placed you. When Jesus sent out the disciples, he gave them his authority and told them which mission fields to go to and which were not their concern at that time (Matt. 10:1, 5-6). Sometimes the Great Commission will involve pioneering ministry and breaking new ground. In many places, however, there’s an existing patchwork of churches and gospel ministries and in these cases making a unique kingdom contribution means filling gaps, reaching unreached people groups or adding partnership ministries.

Strategic mission focuses on how God has equipped you and who he’s calling you to reach, recognizing that he’s also bringing growth through others. And so, driven not by ambition to build personal empires but by divine commission to build God’s eternal kingdom, we ask:
– Where can we focus resources to serve a currently unreached area or people group?
– What makes us more strategically placed than others to make the most of these particular gospel opportunities?
– What, therefore, is our unique kingdom contribution that others are not currently making?

The early church met in multiple locations from homes across the city doing life together, to the temple courts for fellowship out in the marketplace, to public halls they rented for lectures and debates to designated places of prayer, synagogues and eventually church buildings.

Churches aren’t just to put signs on their doors saying ‘enquire within’. Rather, they’re to send each member into their particular mission location as an everyday missionary. Missional churches have multiple gateways that give space to investigate faith in a wide range of locations.

Given your unique kingdom building contribution, what gateways are you establishing for people to explore faith and how accessible are they to people?

One way to build everyday mission is to shift the traditional focus on the church as the sole centre of mission. The following contrasting models of missional flow are shaped by contrasting missional DNA:

 

Attractional churches have a centripetal dynamic that emphasizes bringing people to the worship service or course. Church members can be called ‘bringers’, and evangelism training is focused on praying for friends and inviting friends to events. 

Centrifugal churches invest in community activities and personal evangelism amongst a network of contacts. They then include people in the life of the church, as belonging leads to doctrinal belief, which transforms behaviour.

 

In his letter to the Romans, Paul asks how people will know about Christ unless they hear and how they will hear unless someone speaks to them. In other words, the onus is on Christians to go and speak to people. Churches aren’t just to put signs on their doors saying ‘enquire within’. Rather, they’re to send each member into their particular mission location as an everyday missionary and

This approach embraces the different locations of evangelism while recognizing that the ultimate objective is to make disciples who gather in a mixed community of believers within a local area.

1. Individuals are equipped and sent to the daily mission field. Churches provide training, marketplace ministries and missional small groups. As Christians go they pray for their community, engage in culture as a blessing and share the hope of Christ in daily conversations.

2. Church serves the community through compassion ministries and makes the message of Christ visible, practical and local. Church also organizes outreach events in ‘third spaces’ that act as gateways to gospel conversations.

3. Once people get to know ‘people of peace’ at third-space events, they’re invited to activities at the church where they can explore faith, become Christians, and join the body of Christ. Believers gather to do life and discover more about the Lord Jesus together. 

Offer multiple gateways to come and investigate faith:

1. Family life gateways
Family life ministries are a way of building a whole network of relationships amongst people in the community. Regular events such as toddler groups, therefore, when they’re led with the vision of a compassion ministry, can be gateways into genuine community rather than just surface-level social clubs. When the leaders and helpers are meeting to pray for the people attending and for opportunities to demonstrate sacrificial love to the participants, these activities become a key part of an overall evangelism process. These are ministries that give people a first taste of what Christ’s love and community look like in practice.

2. Third space gateways
Evangelistic activities in neutral community venues help break down barriers when community members see the church located in ordinary places they normally visit and it helps Christians break down the sacred-secular divide. For example, would hiring a community centre or cafe work as a third-space gateway for children and youth? Could a toddler group meet near a popular local play area? Other ideas include:
– A series talks or panel discussions on a contemporary topic followed by discussion and social time.
– Classes such as teaching english, parenting.
– Sports ministry gateways: Sport is popular, social, and celebrates life. Organize a team with a mix of Christians and non-Christians and build in opportunities to chat informally to people, or a more specific talk or testimony can be given at the end of a training session or at a celebration event.

3. Workplace gateways
Encourage church members to run a faith and work event such as a lunch and learn discussion or a speaker and q&a event. See www.soulfactor.org for more ideas.

4. Online gateways
The web provides a shop window where people can start to explore church and faith in the comfort, safety, and anonymity of their home or phone anywhere and anytime.

Step 3: What?

Create a Strategic Process

We learn from Jesus that blindness often lifts gradually as God removes different blocks to sight. In Mark 8, for example, though the disciples have seen so much of Jesus, he asks them, ‘Do you still not see?’. It takes time for their blindness to lift and for Peter to see who Jesus really is and declare him as the Christ. That’s often the experience of people today—instead of hearing everything in one sitting and believing there and then, faith is often a gradual dawning as people’s ability to see Christ’s grace and truth is restored.

The Because Approach sees the journey to faith as a process. The starting point is what is known as ‘the bridge diagram’, which explains our spiritual predicament of being on the edge of a chasm. In the diagram, people are staring at the problem of sin, which leads to death. They’re separated from God with no prospect of being able to bridge the gap by their good works, since no one can never be good enough for God. 

The good news is that God loves us so much he sent his Son to pay for our sin so we don’t have to. Christ’s death on the cross is the bridge of life that brings us into restored relationship with God.

This diagram assumes that people are staring at the problem of sin and crying out for a bridge back to life in relationship with God. In fact, people aren’t staring at the chasm—and they’re often not even aware it exists. They live for the moment, as if unconcerned with the future and God. 

The reality is that many people live life thinking there’s nothing to worry about. ‘I’m not that bad, God and I will get along just fine when we meet.’ But it’s a fatal blindness. And, what’s worse, there are barriers that stand in the way of people seeing the truth. The barriers people have to exploring faith are increasingly basic, or further back in their understanding. Rather than asking questions of truth, for many people faith isn’t even a question or is something ‘long gone’ and relatively unknown. 

The Because Approach identifies the barriers to faith and starts with people much further back in their understanding and interest:

The isolation barrier. As people live increasingly fluid and busy lives, they become increasingly isolated and lonely. One result of this is that many don’t have meaningful relationships with Christians and therefore have little idea what Christianity is about.

The weird barrier. People often have false impressions of Christians, shaped by various media. The perception can be that Christians are weird extremists or sad individuals who need a spiritual crutch.

The irrelevant barrier. Many reject Christianity, saying, ‘It’s lovely you have your faith but I don’t need it’ or ‘It’s just not my thing.’ Our role is not to ‘make Christ relevant’ but to help people see his relevance in action.

The untrue and cost barrier. People may see the relevance of faith, but they also need to see the truth of Christ and the Bible. Understanding inherent truth, and not just acceptance based on need, is vital in evangelism. When they don’t understand the objective truth of the gospel people hear the message of Jesus but then, like the rich man (Matt. 19:16-22), they walk away when they realize the cost. 

The Because Approach helps people move along the journey towards faith by removing each barrier in turn:

Relationship breaks down the isolation barrier. Jesus didn’t just give a gospel outline to people and run off. He got to know them, asked questions, and shared life with them. He built trust. They saw the authenticity of his words lived out in ongoing relationship.
Examples of relationship building activities include: websites; publicity & social media; door to door; welcoming strategy.

Respect breaks down the weird barrier. Jesus’ Great Commission is to go and make disciples. That ‘go’ mentality sees every day as an opportunity to demonstrate the light of Christ and the distinctive lifestyle shaped by the gospel.
Examples of respect building activities include: Compassion ministries meeting needs in the community; Marriage and family groups, courses and care services; Use of building during the week.

Relevance breaks down the irrelevant barrier. The crowd often turned away after hearing Jesus because they missed the relevance of his teaching. Salvation comes as they grasp that Jesus is a doctor and they are the sick in need of his medicine.
Examples of relevance building activities include: Workplace talks and other third space talks; School of Faith essentials course; Sunday question times; Equipping everyday evangelists.

Response breaks down the untrue and cost barriers. Jesus spoke in parables until his disciples understood. But then he moved to teaching plainly about the cross, the resurrection, and the response of taking up our cross.
Examples of response building activities include: Gospel courses; Evangelism every Sunday; integrated teaching.

Create a strategic process

As we have seen, there are many different locations where people can start to explore Christian faith through organized church activities. An important decision for a church is how these activities can be linked together to form an overall evangelism process. How a church decides to connect activities into a process will depend on the church’s setting, vision, and values. Several process options are available:

This strategy puts the emphasis on an informal, ‘non-churchy’ evangelistic course as the most accessible activity for people starting to investigate Christian faith. Attending church services comes later, once people have heard the gospel and are in relationship with people from the church. The challenge is to decide what activities will create a supply chain of people for the course. One way to generate interest in a course is to make it a follow-on to a special Sunday evangelistic service or special event such as a carol service. A guest supper with a talk that previews a course is an excellent bridge that demonstrates relevance and builds interest in exploring further. Gateway ministries and the personal evangelism of church members are also key relationship-building opportunities.

This strategy starts with a church service as the gateway. Every Sunday gathering engages with unbelievers and builds their interest in exploring further. The Bible talks teach principles of the gospel and help people understand how Christ’s death and resurrection change everything. But a useful supplement to week-by-week Sunday talks is a course focused on giving people a more comprehensive understanding of the gospel message and on inviting people to accept Christ. An application of Sunday talks, therefore, is an invitation to take things further by joining a course during the week or on a Sunday (before or after the main church gathering). Once they understand the basics clearly, people learn and grow more and more by continuing to attend main church gatherings as well as by joining a small group.

Commend the gospel by serving the local community and people’s existing networks of friendships. This will generate questions in people who can be invited to next step activities on topics relevant to them such as members of a toddler group being invited to a parenting course. This can then be linked to an evangelistic course tailored to those already coming. This strategy is also well suited to small groups already meeting in a local community. The idea is to join up with other small group ‘cells’ in an area and put on a regular ‘community group’ for your community of friends with food, a relevant talk that connects with Christians and unbelievers, and an invitation to come back on subsequent weeks when you’ll run an evangelistic course specifically for them.

This strategy begins with a focused, ‘non-churchy’ mission—perhaps a week or weekend of events such as a family fun day, village fair, sports day, or arts festival hosted by the church to build relationship and meals including an evangelistic talk. The aim is to invite people to explore faith further in subsequent courses. The advantage of a concentrated set of mission events is that the church can invest time in the run-up to events praying and preparing, and church members can be encouraged to have friends round for pre-events in their homes, at which they can invite people to these big events. It’s easier for some people to get involved in this kind of big event, rather than regular events through the year, but in other contexts having regular events is more effective—especially in more transient communities. 

The School of Faith offers central events in a city or region with follow-on invitations to evangelistic services and courses in the various sponsoring churches. There are two types of central event which are held live but also recorded for the web:
• Conversations are topic-based events or panel discussions which present the Christian worldview and biblical perspective on a topic in comparison to other views. The intention is to curate an event for a city or region that is easy to invite friends and colleagues to because the subject is always highly relevant and the location is both attractive and accessible. 
• Essentials Talks give the foundations of Christianity in a single TED-talk style event. Core Talks act as a bridge between a Conversation event and a longer evangelistic course. There are four short talks given by a variety of speakers which together give  a clear, concise and convincing presentation of the good news of how we can know a restored relationship with our Heavenly Father through Jesus and why that matters to each of us. The invitation to those who attend the event or watch the talks on the website is to put their faith in Christ but also to connect with one of the local partner churches to continue exploring faith. 
By putting on the event together churches gain the advantages of scale and of a central accessible location which then links people with a church in their local area. The website also provides an ongoing central resource as people share the talk recordings.