Servant Evangelism - Matthew 22:39 “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
The church clearly has its strongest power as an evangelist when it is touching the hearts of the society before it touches their heads or intellect. Servant evangelism focuses on taking Christ to the community by doing acts of kindness through the power of the Holy Spirit with absolutely no strings attached. Most people have to be touched multiple times with Christ's love before they are open to accepting Him.
Think about it, are you open to a person’s words if your heart has been softened by a loving act of kindness? Probably so! In the past few years, New Community Church people have engaged in servant evangelism projects like:
- Handing out free water & gatorade to people exercising at North Park
- Giving free waters for inner city folks as we shared the message of hope concerning the Pregnancy Care Center
- Raking leaves for free in Mars neighborhoods
- Hosting a free car wash and giving out cards letting people know God loves them
When more than 10 people start raking a persons leaves for free, the recipient of that "act of kindness" is very surprised. When you do servant evangelism, people will begin to ask the questions you always wanted them to ask. Like "why would you do that?" and "where are you from and where is your church?"
When you engage in a servant evangelism project it is helpful to have a "connection card" to give out to each individual so that they fully understand why we are doing these acts of kindness. You should verbally let them know that God loves them, and this is a simple act that demonstrates that fact. The information on the card is to reinforce that thought and to give them some information on our church if they desire to come and investigate us and God further.
For more information about how you can get more involved in servant evangelism, please contact Craig Thompson at craigt@zoominternet.net or call him at 724-816-6987. Click Here for a list of ideas! Below are some addition web-sites with information from Steve Sjogren, the person who coined the phrase “servant evangelism”:
• kindnessresources.com
• servantevangelism.com
• serve-others.com