Breaking the Huddle

- 15th Annual Outreach Magazine Resource of the Year - EvangelismMost Christians are stuck in the huddle.Even though we believe in outreach, most communities tend to focus on our own needs. That turns us into insular groups without many relationships with outsiders. So evangelism is occasional and conversions are rare. How do we change?In their groundbreaking book I Once Was Lost, Don Everts and Doug Schaupp identified five thresholds that individuals cross when they shift from being skeptics to followers. Now they and Val Gordon show how huddled communities can become witnessing communities and then conversion communities, where evangelistic growth becomes the new normal. The authors have studied the growth of congregations, what enhances and limits them, and have gathered best practices for transformation. Our churches and fellowships can become places where evangelism is not done by a just few people, but where the whole community itself becomes a winsome, thriving witness to those around it.Break out of the huddle. Find out how.

Don Everts is minister of outreach at Bonhomme Presbyterian Church in Chesterfield, Missouri, where he helps people discover a passion for evangelism and global justice. He previously served with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and is a speaker and trainer for Alpha. His books include Jesus with Dirty Feet, The Smell of Sin and I Once Was Lost.