Intro 

Toblerone, in case you've never had to guess what that long triangular present is when it's wrapped up, is one of these:

A series of triangles. We're using this delicious treat as a way to think about evangelism. 

Step 1 of the Toblerone of Evangelism

  But before we get right into this, it's worth asking whether we overdo teaching on evangelism.   The letters written to the churches don't say too much about evangelism.    They say a lot about loving each other, about the presence of Jesus, about the glory of God.   And that is the first and most important element of evangelism. "As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."  Acts 4:20.   Meet God, experience God, and you will speak of him.  Enjoy God in your church.  It doesn't require big programmes, huge campaigns, special techniques, staff or even a lot of training.   The first step in evangelism is just to be with Jesus.

Step 2 - how do you find people?

Suppose that our goal is that our church is going to reach people who don’t know Christ, is going to see them respond in repentance and faith, and join the community on the journey.   The next step is finding people who are open to going on that journey. Obviously, we pray, and that is essential. But beyond that, there are basically three things we can do.  

1/Cold Contact - this is to knock on doors, talk to people on the streets, run social media ads and generally cold call people.  

This has the advantage of spreading the message quickly and with a minimum of investment.   The downsides? It’s often pretty hard work and there is no relationship to reassure people that we’re not crazy.   Which we may be anyway. Nevertheless, particularly in areas of rapid social turnover like South Manchester, this is underrated, probably because we don’t like doing it.

2/ Run Programmes - this we call the "organisational fringe". It might be a CAP programme, a food bank, a parents and toddlers drop in, open youth clubs and the like. In Surrey, this might include a wine and cheese evening, or a poetry club.  

The advantages are that people are introduced to the church community, and we do something to serve them, so we get a chance to love them, reassure them and signpost them to other church things

The disadvantages?   It can be a pile of work, and take up energy way beyond the capacity of a small church.   Some of these programmes go on to great things: one parish down the road (St Marks CE in West Gorton) spawned Manchester City Football Club.   Which is another feature of these programmes: they can outgrow the church, particularly once you start pulling in grants.

3/ Invite your friends - This is the third way that we find people.   We just invite our friends.   We all know people, and if we love our church, we’ll invite them.   In fact, pretty much all churches grow and thrive because people invite their friends.   It might start with door knocking or a church football team.   But friendship and family networks coming into the church and finding that they meet God there is pretty much the only sustainable way to grow.

Which is a reminder to our leaders.   We want to be evangelists, but if we can’t lead a community that is joyful, loving and full of the Spirit, people won’t stick.   Evangelism becomes like lighting firelighters, not a fire.

Finally, back to the Toblerone: as small churches, we don’t run massive programmes, so we rely on inviting people to church directly.   There are other ways, though: we can set up places, meetings and events that make it easier to invite people.   We can cold call people into events and meetings, not just to church.   But in my experience the most powerful invitation is ‘Would you like a cup of coffee? I live just nearby.’  

Written by Rev John Brett, Co-Founder and Diverse Director for Antioch Network Manchester 

Photo Credits go to @craftedbygc and @patrickian4 and @morgi_corgi on ww.unsplash.com.