Effective disciple-making for the 21st century
A Course in “Relational Evangelism”
Jesus Christ was concise and clear in commissioning His church: “… Go and make disciples of all the nations.” At Hope International University (HIU), we believe that an essential part of being a highly effective disciple-maker is being well prepared to share one’s faith. One way to do this is our online
“Relational Evangelism” course offered through our School of Advanced Leadership Training (SALT).
More than 35 years ago, JohnHendee developed
a comprehensive model for equipping Christians in how to make new disciples by being trained how to use “A Peace Treaty With God”. He developed this while serving as Minister of Evangelism at Central Christian Church in Mesa, AZ. Since then many people who have been trained in the use of this model have used it to lead thousands of people into a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ among people of different cultures around the world.
Recently, this approach has been revised, updated,and renamed as“It’s All About Relationship”(IAAR). It is a powerful model for effective twenty-first century disciple making/evangelism. The IAAR model employs a deceptively simple-looking (but biblical!) process that has embedded within it a highly effective relational approach for creating opportunitiesto share the Gospel one-on-one using a comprehensive but concise and powerful tool to make new disciples.
Individuals and groups of any size may take the course through HIU’s Open Class course format for only $50 per person. This course can also be taken for credit at a cost of $300(forBachelors or Masters level credit). Churches wanting to transition to being a disciple-making church will find this course exactly what they need to train an army of ambassadors for Christ to be effective in sharing the Gospel.
John Hendee is also working on launching an ambassador’s support and coaching network which course participants will be invited to be part of as a way to help you be successful at applying your training once you leave the virtual classroom. We want to see you succeed in reaching the lost in your own communities for Jesus Christ!
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FROM JOHN HENDEE
I ran across this article by Thom Rainer on FB this week. I have to ask, “When are we going to take serious what experts are pointing out?”
Take the Relational Evangelism course and you will find that it addresses the problems people twittered below.
Fifteen Reasons Our Churches Are Less Evangelistic Today
By almost any metric, the churches in our nation are much less evangelistic today than they were in the recent past. In my own denomination, we are reaching non-Christians only half as effectively as we were 50 years ago (we measure membership to annual baptisms). The trend is disturbing.
We certainly see the pattern in the early church where “every day the Lord added to them those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47). In too many of our churches today, the congregations are reaching no one for Christ in the course of an entire year.
The Poll
I conducted an unscientific Twitter poll recently to see what church leaders and church members thought of this trend, My specific question was: “Why do you think many churches aren’t as evangelistic as they once were?” The responses arrived quickly and in great numbers, both in public tweets and in direct messages to me. Indeed, I was still receiving responses four days after I sent my Twitter question.
The Results
The response was highly informative for me. Here are the top fifteen responses listed in order of frequency:
- Christians have no sense of urgency to reach lost people.
- Many Christians and church members do not befriend and spend time with lost persons.
- Many Christians and church members are lazy and apathetic.
- We are more known for what we are against than what we are for.
- Our churches have an ineffective evangelistic strategy of “you come” rather than “we go.”
- Many church members think that evangelism is the role of the pastor and paid staff.
- Church membership today is more about getting my needs met rather than reaching the lost.
- Church members are in a retreat mode as culture becomes more worldly and unbiblical.
- Many church members don’t really believe that Christ is the only way of salvation.
- Our churches are no longer houses of prayer equipped to reach the lost.
- Churches have lost their focus on making disciples who will thus be equipped and motivated to reach the lost.
- Christians do not want to share the truth of the gospel for fear they will offend others. Political correctness is too commonplace even among Christians.
- Most churches have unregenerate members who have not received Christ themselves.
- Some churches have theological systems that do not encourage evangelism.
- Our churches have too many activities; they are too busy to do the things that don’t really matter.
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| John Hendee
MY COMMENT about this list is this:
Few of our leaders are training Christians how to effectively share the Gospel with the people they know and meet.
Until we fix that, nothing will change.
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THE RESPONSE OF A DOCTOR CURRENTLY TAKING THIS COURSE.
I wanted to share a small part of the response of a doctor in Tennessee who is currently taking the Relational Evangelism course.
In the weekly interaction of the students I asked the question; Are there any doubts, fears or questions that you had at the beginning of the course that have been answered about the IAAR presentations?
Here was his first response
I didn’t know if this was the technique that I would be using at the end of the course. I assumed it would be, but I had to take it for a ‘test drive’. I also didn’t know if I would want to teach it to my class and groups, or even to my medical practice. I didn’t know if I could use it with my patients without significance offense or without sabotaging the right that I have worked at in order to share.
Then another student responded to what he wrote by asking:
…..and, how are those questions and fears answered? Where do they stand now? 🙂
And here is his answer to that:
Well…I already have plans to use it and teach it in my groups. I have about 50 people that I teach weekly in various Bible study groups. I then will teach them how to use this, and expect them to use it as well. If they want to try another method/version…I’ll encourage them to use that too. The most important part is that they use whatever is effective for them.
At work, I will start using IAAR soon. I received a blessing from our CEO, b/c he knows that it will be a natural extension of my practice and of my group. Natural, not confrontational. My partners are already thinking of people to ask. I will likely have someone design some invitation/ business cards to hand to patients. I’m not sure if: I will promote with a poster, if I will team with one partner, or various partners, or even my wife (It might become our date night). I might use one of the guys I disciple to go with me, or any/all of the above.
I have also started asking pharmaceutical reps if they would like to hear about restoring relationship with God. We’ve always told each other in our clinic that we have many people every day wanting to talk to us; they just didn’t know they were going to her ‘Good News’.
Now think about this folks. Are you hearing the impact this had on him? Earlier in the course he described himself as ‘outspoken’ about his faith. But still he found this very valuable. He doesn’t explain it here but he is planning on using Friday nights as IAAR nights. That is what the invites etc. are for.
NOW HERE IS THE QUESTION. What would happen in your congregation if dozens or hundreds took this course and started reaching out to the people around them like this? Why would you NOT want to take this course when it gives even an OUTSPOKEN, CONFIDENT, BOLD person a way to be even more effective.
Now take a less outspoken person. It is changing their lives too. They are gaining confidence and they see a way to confidently reach out to those around them.
My prayer is:
“Oh God, help people see the need for this and throw out any reasons they have as to why they think they and their people don’t need this training!”.
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WHO COULD YOU SPONSOR?????
A good friend of mine Dick Osness, recently baptized a young Rabbi and his wife. He is doing their church wedding real soon. I had the privilege of meeting the Rabbi a couple weeks ago. He has an amazing story. I told him about my class and he seemed VERY interested. He even suggested that he could translate the IAAR into Hebrew!. Dick and Nora came up with the idea of gifting them their enrollment in the online course as a wedding present. Brilliant. So I will.
Who could you sponsor in taking this class??? Family, friends, leaders in the church, missionaries, church planters, elders, etc. What a great early Easter gift that would be for someone. Invite them to take it along with you! |
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A Note from Doug.”
President of Team Expansion
Take Part in a Global PrayerCast on April 17
On April 17, you can unite with a world of believers for praise, peace and purpose. Through the magic of the internet, you and your team, Bible study, or church can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with groups of believers struggling for peace around the planet. The time will be 8pm Louisville and the date is Friday, April 17. There’s no charge to participate. And we’ll be emphasizing peace as we work our way through the outline from a long-standing program by the name, “sweet hour of prayer. If you’d like to participate, just go to
http://www.GlobalPrayerCast.com
and we’ll see if there’s a prayer slot left for you. God bless your month!
Doug
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