The impact of building credibility in outreach

Praise and Proclaim has had the privilege of conducting forty-seven outreach initiatives since its inception in 2016. With every congregation, we attempt to learn while we train members to verbally proclaim the gospel.

I believe we have uncovered a powerful way for congregations to engage their community and transition to sharing a brief gospel message.  I explain more in this short video.

Last month, Praise and Proclaim launched three outreach initiatives at three separate congregations. Each initiative employed a strategy of conducting a community event in conjunction with their evangelism training. Our initiative conducts training on Friday evening then provides an opportunity to put training into action by going door-to-door the next day to proclaim the gospel. The methodology includes inviting people to a specific community event before transitioning to giving a short reason for the hope we have in Christ. This approach gave us credibility at the door and made the proclamation of the gospel be much smoother and comfortable. The community event we invited people to attend typically occurred 10 to fourteen days after our outreach initiative.

Here are brief summaries of the community events that each of these three congregations conducted:

Good News Lutheran Church
Mt Horeb, WI

Located outside of Madison, Good News is a new mission church that began six years ago. In conjunction with the Praise and Proclaim outreach initiative, the congregation organized and invited people to attend “The Taste of Mt Horeb”. It turned out to be a smashing success. An estimate 500-600 people came to a city park in town heard a little Good News! [Photos by Melissa Winters Photography.]   Keep reading

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St. John’s Lutheran Church
Juneau, WI

St. John’s Lutheran Church in Juneau, WI recently launched a second site in Horicon which is about seven miles away. In conjunction with the Praise and Proclaim outreach initiative, the congregations invited people from Horicon to hear a presentation by the county sheriff about public safety and how the current opioid epidemic is affecting the community. Pastor Paul Schupmann provided a short message for the people who attended the presentation at the local American Legion Center.   Keep Reading

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St. John’s Lutheran Church was recently highlighted in the lastest edition of WELS Connection – a monthly video feature produced the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. They embarked on an aggressive discipleship program to bring back inactive or lapsed members of the congregation to be a part of the St. John’s family again.

CrossLife Church
Pflugerville, TX

Pflugerville is a growing community outside of Austin, TX.  With a projected population of 65,000, it is one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S.  Originally starting out as a second site with Holy Word in Austin, CrossLife is a new WELS church that is being planted at the heart of new construction. The members were joined by students from Wisconsin Lutheran High School (WISCO) to go out into the community and plant seeds of the gospel.   Keep Reading

Today, we received the following update from Rev. Daron Lindemann: “God blessed our CrossLife church picnic Sunday yesterday with a burst in attendance, and 5 new families who visited worship and stayed for the picnic. The picnic included kickball and bowling, grilled burgers and potluck meal, and general fun and friendship together in Jesus’ love. Some of the families were are result of our Praise and Proclaim outreach mailings and canvassing, some were neighbors whom our members invited.

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