Eric Hoey

Evangelism resource tools-Great Blog!

In the commitment of the national offices to be resource providers, I highly recommend the website--  www.evangelismcoach.org

Chris Walker has one of the best sites I have found on evangelism. There are more “nuggets” of information on that site than I could read in one sitting. While exploring his site, I felt like a kid in a candy store filled with excellent information on evangelism and church growth. Chris Walker has a deep passion for evangelism and has committed his life to training others in evangelism. He is big heart for God and the proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ. It is a site to which you will want to subscribe and read on a regular basis.

Book of Order: Look What I Found Here!

As was reading about The Church’s Calling from G-3.0300, I marveled how much I had forgotten how explicit our constitution is on the role of the church in the world:

1. To tell the good news of salvation by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. (G-3.0300a)
2. To present the claims of Jesus Christ leading persons to repentance, acceptance of him as Savior and Lord, and new life as his disciples. (G-3.0300b)
3. To be Christ’s faithful evangelist

Then I read G-3.0400, and it hit me with a ton of bricks, stopped me in my tracks, and brought tears to my eyes.

“The church is called to undertake this mission even at the risk of losing its life, trusting in God alone as the author and giver of life, sharing the gospel, and doing those deeds in the world that point beyond themselves to the new reality in Christ”

When was the last time you heard of a Presbyterian church that ventured out with the gospel of Jesus Christ at the “risk of losing it life?” I am afraid our churches are much more into self-preservation than losing its life for Jesus. Maybe some of our churches need to take some risk. What have they got to lose?

Lighting Our Future

Sometimes when I am brave enough to face the cold dark weather in the early mornings of KY, I will walk the streets of my subdivision with my headlamp. I noticed that when I walk with the light pointing down directly in front of me, I am only able see 2-3 feet in front of me. I miss all the beauty of the early morning. But when the headlamp is pointed 8-10 feet ahead of me, my walk is greatly enhanced. I am able to see everything with a larger perspective. The morning is much more beautiful and my walk is more enjoyable with the light shining ahead of me instead of directly in front of me.

The church is similar. If churches only focus upon the pitfalls directly in front of them, I believe they will miss the greater opportunities of growth God has for them. When the vision of the church is set toward future direction, churches will enjoy the journey from a much different perspective. Instead of the usual maintenance and damage control, the church becomes future focused and more intentional in everything that it does. May God grow the churches of the PC(USA).

Facing the Decline of the PCUSA Head-On!

I often receive letters of concern about what the Evangelism and Church Growth ministry area going to do about the decline of the denomination. There are some things we can do, but in reality, the bulk of the responsibility of growing our denomination falls upon the faithful work of each of our congregations. If every Presbyterian could share their faith with one person within the next 4 years, I believe we could easily stop the decline of our church. Here in the offices of Evangelism and Church Growth, we are committed to providing resources to our congregations and presbyteries in the following ways:

1. INSPIRE our denomination to share their faith. We are committed to telling the stories throughout our denomination of faithful evangelism and church growth efforts. We plan to offer models of evangelism and church growth that are working well to inspire our churches to grow.
2. INSTRUCT our denomination with tools on particular church growth issues. Many of our offices offer seminars to help congregations ultimately grow in a variety of ways. (See our website www.pcusa.org/churchgrowth)
3. INTERCONNECT our denomination through collaborative networks, funding sources, and others who are addressing the same issues of growing our churches across the country.

God is at work in the national offices of the Presbyterian Church. We are deeply committed to offering the world a visible witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Is God at work in your church? I would love to hear about it.

The Power of the Gospel

Last year, I was in a conversation about evangelism with some people who represented different perspectives of our church. A phrase was mentioned that stopped us in our tracks. “It seems like Presbyterians no longer believe in the power of the Gospel.” The more we pondered the profound significance of the idea, the more we all realized that this is absolutely true within our denomination. Evangelism had become a weakness in our church when we refused to believe the power of the gospel to transform lives.

As the director for Evangelism and Church Growth, I want to use this blog to talk about how we can “reclaim the power of the gospel” for our denomination. I hope this can become one way to resource our denomination to become equipped to share our powerful stories of transformation. We really do have a story to tell about God’s grace in our lives. It is moving, transformative and worth telling. I dream of seeding a “perfect storm” in our church where God is raining down blessing and growth upon the PC(USA), and seeing evangelism become a natural response of our churches by telling the world the transforming power of the Good News of Jesus Christ. I welcome your thoughts and comments.