Ideas For Evangelism - Way of Life Literature

3. Church telephone message recorder. Churches mustmake it easy for people to contact them. If potentialvisitors or people seeking spiritual help for themselves ortheir loved ones are frustrated when they attempt tocontact the church and the pastor, they will usually gosomewhere else. A survey done by Barna ResearchGroup in August 2000 found that it is very difficult to getin touch with pastors. They called 4,000 Protestantchurches during normal business hours. “The callersconnected with a human being on the first try only onethirdof the time. Forty percent of the churches neverconnected the Barna callers with a human being, eventhough some churches were called 12 times” (ReligionToday, August 24, 2000). George Barna rightly observed:“In a world where people are extremely busy and aresuspicious of the practical value of churches, they are notlikely to make three or four calls to a church before theyget to speak to a human being. If churches really want tohelp people, they have to be accessible.” Churches notonly should have an answering machine or voice mail butshould return calls quickly. Callers should be encouragedto leave their phone number with the promise thatsomeone will return the call quickly. It is essential thatthe phone messaging system be checked frequently andthat calls be returned. If the pastor does not have a fulltimesecretary, he should seek volunteers who can helphim on a part-time basis with important tasks like this.4. Newspaper ads. Another very logical way to advertisethe church and to preach the gospel is via localnewspapers. Some papers in the States give churches freeadvertising space once per week. Some newspapers givepastors opportunity to write religious columns from timeto time. Churches should take advantage of this andmake the community aware of their existence. Special