Imperfect Church, part 4

Steve Sjogren advises struggling churches to get Simple, look Upward, and work Outward. Sjogren first came to my attention as the strategist behind Servant Evangelism, and reaching people for Jesus remains noe of his strongest suits.

Worship and evangelism are closely connected in his thinking. "Sometimes having a dynamic worship experience makes us fall more deeply in love with Christ, which causes us to reach out to the not-yet-Christians God wants to include in his family. But sometimes it's looking outward first that leads us to worship - as we lovethe lost, we feel a need to worship God." As the "Perfectly Imperfect Church " seeks to look outward, he offers several guidelines:

1. There are lots of different ways to be outward; the more varieties we have in our repetoire the better.
2. All Evangelism is good evangelism (He expands greatly on this in his other book, Irresistible Evangelism which I'll blog at a later date.)
3. Leading others to Christ isn't that complicated. Under this point he speaks about his omre recent experience, "I'm moving from a 'tell 'em how it is' to a 'let's discover salvation together' mode."

In leading people to Jesus he admonishes us to:

• Keep it Loving
• Keep it Real
• Keep it Straight
• Keep it Simple
• Be Consistent in Your Outreaches
• Tell Encouraging Stories Often
• Find Creative Ways to Make Outreach Prominent at Weeken Celebrations
• Stay Involved in Social Outreach
• Create an Outreach Identity
• Make a Strong and Enduring Commitment to Outreach