I was talking to a TrueLife.org pastor recently who wanted to cancel his subscription. He explained that he wasn’t seeing the results that he had hoped for and had a lot of cards left over. I had many questions I wanted to ask him, but I started by saying, “Ask yourself this question, would you have more people getting invited to church with or without TrueLife.org?” He said he would get more invites with TrueLife.org. I knew that was true even though he was likely not even using TrueLife the way it is supposed to be used.
I had a feeling there was more to this story, so I asked, “What happened over the year you were with us?” The pastor told me that he had not really pushed the cards as hard as he had planned too. He said that he launched TrueLife.org during an evangelism series and he didn’t see the results he wanted. He asked his people the next week if they had handed out cards and he said only one member did it out of 100. I told him on the first week you are supposed to show the video at the end of your evangelism message and ask them at the end of the video, “Who can commit to invite someone to church?” with a show of hands. He said that he did that, but I asked him, “Did you hold them accountable by saying that you were going to ask them next week whether or not they did?” He replied, “No, I just checked up on them because I told them to hand out the cards the week before.”
Unfortunately, we hear this story a lot. Pastors are not following the ingredient steps. If this pastor would have told his people that he was going to ask them the next week if they handed out the cards, he would have seen close to or above 70% participation.
He told me he has been disappointed in his church ever since because he knew TrueLIfe.org was the easiest way to move his people and they couldn’t even do that, but this would likely have been the case for any church whose pastor did not tell the people that they will be asked next week if they handed out the cards. Accountability is key to TrueLife.org working in your church!
Also, I knew that this pastor could benefit from our newest and most important addition to each sermon that will maintain a 70% participation rate, so I asked, “Do you close every sermon with a Gospel presentation?” and he replied, “Of course.”
I said, “That’s right; the Gospel is always fresh and new, so in the same manner, we want you to close out your services like this, ‘Brothers and sisters, you have just heard the sermon today and the Gospel. In front of you, there are 5 invitation cards rubber banded together that represent 5 people who have not been able to have that enormous blessing. Please, take them in your hand (you have them in your hand too), and let's take a moment and pray quietly in your heart that God will give you the right people to hand them to this week.’ Then you pray silently for 10 seconds, and close in corporate prayer.”
Then, I asked the pastor, “How can God not answer that prayer?” and with an encouraging tone in his voice he said, “He has to! God said He would answer prayers that are in His will.”
I have been hearing a lot about this “Who is your one?” which is a campaign to reach one person this year. Pastors have become so desperate to mobilize their army that it has come down to being happy with their congregation only inviting or witnessing to one person in a year.
Let me ask you this question, what would have happened if Jesus’ disciples would have only told one person every year about what Jesus did on the cross? Would we have a global church that encompasses most of the nations in this world? Would we have the Bible translated in most languages? Think about it, the church would be anemic!
Fellow Laborers, we are disciples of Christ and as such we should be imitating Jesus’ 12 disciples. Jesus’ disciples were very active in telling everyone about Salvation through Jesus Christ. They had seen the life changing power of grace in their own lives and in the lives of their families and friends. They wanted everyone to hear about what Jesus did for them and they told anyone and everyone who would listen. At Pentecost and beyond, thousands were being added to the church every day! That can happen today, but Disciples have to be willing to talk to people! The power is not in us, it is in the grace that is greater than all our sin!
This conversation started with a discouraged pastor that didn’t feel like TrueLife.org was doing its job, but it ended with a pastor who had renewed vigor and purpose because he now had steps to help his people fulfill the Great Commission.
Fellow Pastors, this may be how you are feeling today and I wanted you to know that your congregation will change and will get 70% inviting and evangelizing if you follow the ingredient steps and incorporate that prayer at the end of your service. This is the simplest way that I know to get your people to be true Disciples of Christ.
Having worked with thousands of churches at this point we have come to a clear conclusion. Churches who follow the implementation strategy of our evangelism program see results, while churches who try and just wing it, however they see fit, simply do not.
If you haven't seen the results you are looking for from TrueLife.org, I encourage you to re-examine to watch this video of a recent interview I did with a pastor on FaceTime.
But no matter what, don't lose hope and don't give up on a culture of evangelism. It is worth fighting for, even if progress can be discouraging at times.
Jesus’ Disciples knew the worth of a person and most of them died trying to give everyone they met the life giving message of Salvation through Jesus Christ. This is truly loving your neighbor as yourself.
