Mobilizing Your Church to Reach New People - Episode 336
Feb 21, 2024
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Leaders discuss mobilizing churches to reach communities using the B.L.E.S.S. model. Strategies include prayer, listening, serving, and sharing stories. The podcast highlights the effectiveness of blessing others and creating an evangelistic culture in churches.
The B.L.E.S.S. Model focuses on engaging non-believers through prayer, listening, eating, serving, and sharing your story.
Community Christian Church uses online platforms, micro churches, and the Alpha program to reach new people effectively.
Deep dives
The Bless Model: A Practical Way to Love Your Neighbor
The Bless Model, created by pastors John and Dave Ferguson, offers a practical way to engage with non-believers and love your neighbors. It is based on the five practices of bless: begin with prayer, listen, eat, serve, and share your story. This model emphasizes the importance of prayer and intentionally building relationships through everyday activities like listening, sharing meals, serving others, and sharing your own faith journey. By making blessing others a way of life, individuals and churches can create an evangelistic culture that empowers and mobilizes others to reach new people.
The Role of the Church in Reaching New People
In addition to the Bless Model, community Christian church uses various strategies to reach new people. These include engaging with online platforms, such as community online.tv, which reaches thousands of people digitally. They also focus on micro churches, with close to 3,000 people engaging through smaller churches led by individuals who want to reach those outside the church. Additionally, they utilize the Alpha program, which complements the Bless Model by creating a community for asking questions, listening, sharing meals, and sharing the gospel story. These various strategies contribute to a holistic approach in reaching new people.
Rolling Out the Bless Model in Your Church
To roll out the Bless Model in your church, it is important to first practice it yourself. Encourage your leadership team to engage in the practices of prayer, listening, eating together, serving others, and sharing their own stories. Make it a part of your weekly small group discussions and ask each other who you have blessed that week. Consider incorporating Bless in your weekend services through teaching series, testimonial videos, and moments of commissioning. Don't rush into a message series, but rather focus on living out Bless first and then lead by example to create an evangelistic culture in your church.
Keeping Bless Fresh in Your Church
To keep the Bless Model fresh in your church, make it a part of your ongoing conversations and celebrations. Share stories of life change and encourage your staff and leadership team to continue inviting and reaching out to their friends and family. Utilize resources like the Bless Every Home app, which helps you develop an intentional prayer list for your neighbors. By consistently living out Bless and sharing these stories, you will maintain a culture of blessing throughout your church community.
Our role as leaders is to empower our church to do the work of ministry and to make the mission their own.
In this episode, we’re joined by Jon and Dave Ferguson to discuss the B.L.E.S.S. model for mobilizing our congregations to reach our communities.
Free Webinar: Reaching & Connecting New People in 2024
In this free webinar, ministry voices from North Point, Sun Valley Community Church, and Victory Hill Church will walk through proven strategies and best practices for creating intentional weekend services that reach and connect with new people. Register now.
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For the full episode transcript, links mentioned during the show, and to download the Leader Conversation Guide, visit this episode's Show Notes at theunstuckgroup.com/episode336.
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If you're listening on Wednesday when the episode first releases, join the live conversation The Unstuck Group's team will be having on social media about this week's topic. We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on X/Twitter. Or you can join in on Facebook.
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