Does your church have an A&E squad?

If not, why not?

But first, A&E?

Not Adam and Eve;

Not Accident and Emergency

But

Apologetics and Evangelism.

Particularly if your church claims to be evangelistic, it must have something like this...or it is not evangelistic.

An evangelistic church equips its members to do evangelism, at some level.

If your church merely does 'in-drag', and even if it erroneously calls it 'outreach' it is not evangelistic.

Even if it "preaches the gospel" at every service/assembly/meeting/gathering, it is not being evangelistic.

What happens in the gathering of saints is EDIFICATION...building-up in their Christian walk. Teaching, encouraging, exhorting, praying, sharing, discussing. That's how Paul saw it in 1 Cor 11-14.

Today our church gatherings too much reflect the re-packaged temple paganism of the post-Constantine world that remains largely unreformed today; even in circles with an Anabaptist heritage.

The squad would look after training in apologetics and evangelism; not only training, but encouraging, de-briefing, preparing true out-reach events in your community and equipping those who are engaged conducting the events.

And the training would reach down to the every day level, the 1 Peter 3:15 activity we all are asked to engage in.

At this level the great skill is being able to join a person's conversation in their own terms and move it to an evangelistic pointing conversation. It may not get to the personal encounter with our Lord, but Peter doesn't say it does, will or should. It is about simply giving an account.

So the three levels are:

1 - ICE: Incidental Personal Evangelism.

The training for this starts with the 7 Big Questions that people have of Christians:

Why are you a Christian?

Why do you read the Bible?

Why do you attend church?

Don't all religions teach the same thing?

That's good if its your truth, but I'm spiritual without that/its not for me.

How can a God of love permit so much evil and suffering?

Hasn't science disproved the Bible?

And there's a similar set for discussing with Muslims:

The Bible has been corrupted

The Trinity makes no sense

Where did Jesus say, "I am God, worship me"?

How can God die?

How can God punish one person for the sins of another person?

If Jesus died for your sins, can't you sin all you want?

Why did Jesus pray to God if he is God? 

 

Each set is a good one day, or two half day seminar.

Then its discussing how they went.

2 - LEE: Local Evangelism Effort

Or what you do off  your premises and in your community

People need to be specifically equipped for this: its real 'out-reach'; off the church facility.

It has to suit your community, but could be a regular street stall, a 'drop-in' thrift shop with free coffee, work with disadvantaged: those living alone, unwell, out of work, etc. Running public seminars on relevant topics (these could be no your premises).

3 - CIA: Cultural Impact Activities

Here is where a local church can run 'attractor' events that can introduce people to a course like Alpha, or similar that your denomination uses.

These might be evenings for parents with children at various life stages with a meal and informative talks from relevantly qualified people, as an example.

Perhaps a regular talk for people about to join the workforce about work relations, rights and obligations, and how to navigate the new environment  to make the best impression and get the most out of it.

They might be carols evenings during Advent, special concerts on your premises.

Lots of options, but the base-line support is from the A&E Squad; a sort of resource for equipping, educating, training and encouraging for the work of communicating the gospels leading some to become disciples.