Eight Simple Steps for Reaching People

Written by Richard E. Dodge

Outreach is easier to start and maintain when resistance is minimal and “natural forces” can sustain movement. By natural forces I mean that motivation, commitment, and resources are readily available and capable leaders help train those who will make visits or witness to the lost.

Finding Them, Keeping Them

The outreach efforts of Sunday School leaders are based on key biblical statements, particularly the Great Commission. Jesus established the mandate to reach, teach, and evangelize. In an ideal world, all Christians would feel compelled by the Master’s marching orders to reach the lost. But our world - indeed even our churches - do not represent an ideal world. Unfortunately the church today seems to be filled with resistance to outreach, so discovering some actions and strategies might help us discover the path of least resistance in outreach.

Finding Them, Keeping Them

1. Make a commitment from the top down - Most people will do what their leaders model and then encourage. Sunday School ministry leaders, including teachers and other class leaders must set the pace with a public commitment to outreach and a public practice of witnessing and reaching the lost.

2. Accept responsibility for the lost - Jesus instilled more than a job description; rather, He established a basic principle of responsibility: Those who are saved are responsible for those who are lost. Sunday School leaders must communicate that this principle continues to apply to all Christians today.

3. Evaluate your readiness to reach - Our commitment to outreach will be reflected in how our time is spent. We invest ourselves in those areas that have greatest importance to us.

4. Make changes in priorities - We must be careful to invest in a balanced way in the various areas of our work, both in the time and other resources are have.

5. Set personal and group goals - If we teach and lead teachers to set a personal goal of reaching one person for Christ, then the class goal, and indeed the churchwide goal, sets itself. Guide teachers to support their statements of commitment with personal goals.

6. Provide the means - Planned outreach strategies have proven to work best in most churches. Develop one for classes and ask those who can make visits to come at that time. If necessary, schedule two times so the majority of learners can participate.

7. Discover and enroll prospects - Who among us has not heard conversation or observed actions from people who demonstrated a need for Christ! We must learn to think “prospect” when we encounter such people.

8. Follow up immediately - Failure to follow up on people is probably the most critical mistake we can make.

Remember that it’s easier not to get involved than it is to make visits. A variety of fears and hurdles will present themselves, from meals and standing meetings to flat tires and Little League baseball games. The key is to help people discover that outreach is biblically based, and that commitment to Christ and His mandate should be a priority in every Christian’s life.