My top 5 tips:

• CREATE simple opportunities to maintain friendships & contact with unbelieving friends (movies, coffee, walk…)
• MAKE the most of your time in transit (spark up conversations when on the bus, train etc)
• KEEP reading the gospels and learn from the master himself! (lots of lessons to learn from Jesus)
• ASK friends to pray for you & for your friends (be accountable get them to ask how your personal evangelism is going)
• FOSTER new friends with people. If you work in full time ministry you have an automatic in to the gospel. eg. when you barista/kids-friends-parent/butcher/ asks ‘you work local?’ ‘yes, at the church’ …

Guest Post by Maria Comino

Susan works as an integral part of a community co-operative based in a slum on the outskirts of Manila in The Philippines. Her role as a sample maker enables the team to take a concept idea, transforming it into a beautiful reality. With five children, her husband and mother living in a small home in one of the slum areas, the rubbish dump looms high over the community. Through her dedication and success, she has chosen to invest in her children’s education, and is steadily sending each child to be trained as teachers, or in administration. Susan and her family are Christians, and are integrally involved in the local church and community.

As Susan develops and produces products from bags to pencil cases and makeup bags from her home, they go to the organisation to be sold internationally. Once they arrive in the homes of people around the world, Susan has long since moved onto new products and projects, and the work continues to grow, enabling women in similar situations to invest into their children’s lives and that of their community.

Products that have been made using fair/ethical trade principles indicate that the organisations have chosen to pay fair and decent wages to the producers. They have chosen to invest in good working conditions and the local community. It seeks to give opportunities to the poorest of the poor, giving them the support needed to establish work and opportunities. Through our purchase choices, we can support talented artists, craftsmen, their family’s and in turn, their local community who are living in poverty, in a way that is sustainable. It relies heavily on the personal relationships, commitment and dedication that are developed with the community’s. Our buying power influences choices being made on a wider scale, resulting in increased sales and in turn, brings ground level change. Increasing opportunities are becoming available to make a difference right here. It is an opportunity to take an active role living out our faith and relationship with Jesus through our actions as well through our words.

As Christian’s, we are called to love God, and love others as ourselves, and as we individually make choices, we can bring hope to the lives of others, enabling them to escape the devastating web that poverty can trap so many in.

A growing number of Christian shops around Australia have a growing range of  fair and ethically traded products from different Christian organisations around the world, providing wonderful purchasing opportunities. We can develop relationships with our favourite shops, and ask questions about where products come from. Fair Trade markets, and online stores are a growing phenomenon, and more Christians are becoming involved, through advocacy, travelling, and a growing awareness of the world around us bringing new opportunities and possibilities to us all.

Helpful websites and information:

Definitions:
Fair Trade brand (1)
Fairtrade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. By requiring companies to pay sustainable prices, Fairtrade addresses the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers. It enables them to improve their position and have more control over their lives. (fairtrade)

Ethical Trade brand (2)
The ethical trade movement originated the 1990s when campaigns and media exposés brought attention to the harsh conditions of workers producing clothes, shoes, toys, food and other consumables for multinational companies. Ethical trade involves large buying companies taking a series of recognised steps to improve the conditions of the workers throughout their supply chains, wherever they are in the world. (ethicaltrade)

Advocacy:
Tear Fund
Micah Network
Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand
Ethical Trading Initiative

Online shops:
Empowering the Poor
Tribes and Nations

People Tree UK

Retailers:
CBAA independent stores and churches around Australia see store locator at
www.cbaa.com.au

Why Art?
God created the universe. God created us. Because we were created in His image, we have inherited the creative impulse from our heavenly Father. We all express that God-given creativity in wildly diverse ways, but certainly visual art is one of them. Our humble attempts to form art, like anything else we do throughout our days, should be offered in a God-ward trajectory of worship and should be offered to other people as acts of love. We believe the cultivation of smart, skilled, conceptually rich and beautiful art, coming from gospel-centered Christians, will result in a healthier, more beautiful church and more livable cities.

from Sojourn Church – Visual Arts Ministry

BUT Spiritually, it is all about MISSION!

As much as I love art, cupcakes, coffee, balloons, bbq’s, and having our face painted I love Jesus more and am convinced He is worthy of all creations worship. I want to see more worshipers around the throne, worshiping the lamb, not just because I know the benefits they will receive in doing so, but more importantly because Jesus deserves their worship. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. All the outreach ministries of our church aim to glorify Jesus by gathering more and more worshipers of him.

I want to create places for smiling faces, where people can meet Christians, gain exposure to gospel community and hopefully encounter Jesus. As one of my favourite pastors John Piper, says “mission exists because worship doesn’t. And so with I ♥ Kirribilli, it only exists because worship doesn’t.

It might not look like a normal evangelistic mission… Its a week long program with only two spots where the gospel is shared formally – the prize night and the kids art workshop. We don’t have an the charismatic evangelist, Billy-Graham-type speaking to the masses. We aren’t going doorknocking, and there isn’t a youth rally.

Instead of just bringing in the ‘professional evangelists’ or thinking there just needs to be a formal preaching opportunity – the evangelism during this week is going to be done by each of you. We each have the treasure of the gospel and the power to share it. Sitting on the door of church welcoming people to the exhibition, giving them a peoples choice response slip, offering a free cupcake, sample of fair trade coffee gives you reason to be chatting and sharing your lives with people.

In many ways it is door knocking / walk up evangelism handed to us on a silver platter. It’s a lot less threatening for all involved, its natural, and its what church should be doing… gospelling people we meet.

We estimated 1000 people wandered through the church during the week, last year.  This is just the opportunity we have with the many unchurched neighbours and friends who enter or view the exhibition. We get the opportunity to plant little gospel seeds into people’s lives, and perhaps see others or ourselves water, and God give these seeds the growth.

“God of victory you are my passion,
its in the way you are, you don’t change at all…
my strength in life is I am Yours
my soul delights because I am Yours,
my will on earth is all I am living for,
Jesus I glorify…
you are my hearts desire,
I live to know you more”
- Jesus Culture

If you like them, why not buy their new 3 track EP ‘My Passion’,
available for download on iTunes.

via Worship Matters by Bob Kauflin

Facebook provides a wealth of evangelistic and outreach opportunities, many of
which are yet to be exploited to their full potential. Here’s just a
couple of ideas:

• create a Facebook Page for your church (and promote it in church
  and in the local community),
• create a social group to promote social activities and fellowship,
• create events (e.g. Easter services, Christmas carols) and invite
  your friends to attend,
• post thought-provoking status updates.

How have you used Facebook for the purpose of outreach?

An opportunity that remains untouched (as far as I’ve seen) is the
capacity Facebook provides to share MP3′s. It’s very simple – when you
post an update, click on the ‘Link’ icon in the attachments area. Add
the link of an MP3 (e.g. the weekend’s sermon), and Facebook will
provide you with space to add the title, artist and album. Here’s how
it looks:

There’s some great potential with this facility – whilst friends and family may not make the trip to the church website to download a sermon, they might be more likely to listen to a talk you recommend on Facebook. Somehow it seems less scary to post a link to a talk via Facebook, than to send an email encouraging a friend to listen! And considering Australians spend 29% of their online time on Facebook, you might as well provide them with something to listen to while they’re there!

You can read more about this facility on All Facebook and The Next Web.

I’ve written more about Facebook at Communicate Jesus.

In 2001 He published a paper entitled: “Sorry To Disappoint, but I’m Still an Atheist! In 2007, however, he was able to publish “There is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed his Mind“

Flew always described himself as a “negative atheist”…

After months of soul-searching, Flew concluded that research into DNA had “shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce life, that intelligence must have been involved”…

Flew went on to make a video of his conversion entitled Has Science Discovered God? and seemed to want to atone for past errors: “As people have certainly been influenced by me, I want to try and correct the enormous damage I may have done,” he said.

Read the full story here

1. Based on people
   Look out into your congregations… at the people God has generously blessed your church family with. Don’t look at the tasks that need doing, but look at the fruit of the Spirit in peoples lives. If there are godly people who love Jesus and love talking about him, why not chat to them about ideas they might have and ask them to think about ideas and encourage them to see ways they can do outreach at your church. Shape ideas around your people, not your people around ideas.
2. Based on Ideas
   Look out into your congregation… to see if there is any correspondence with the things you have dreamed up and the people you find in your congregation.  Find something that would be better delegated, either because you aren’t as skilled as others, don’t have adequate time to commit to it, or have lost interest. Again, shape or modify your ideas around your people, not your people around your ideas. Encourage them to develop the idea-seed and to take responsibility for it.

Really, both are about people, just different starting points. Once you have your teams, make sure you ‘let go’ and ‘support’ them.

Start looking today.
Are there some people in your church who are not actively serving but could be?
Are there some people in your church who are gifted in evangelism?
Are there some people in your church passionately convicted?