Evangelism and Growth - Articles of Interest

Resources for Evangelism in the Episcopal Church tradition more...

Compiled by Carolyn Chilton, consultant in Christian Formation, this listing summarizes books, curricula, videos and internet resources related to evangelism.  More information is available at the National Association of Episcopal Christian Educators Directors at http://www.naeced.org.

Generations: Implications for Evangelism more... at tens.org

Prepared by The Rev. Ronald L. Reed, Rector
St. James Episcopal Church, Wichita, Kansas

Most congregations in North American are graying. The shifting of demographically defined age groupings is now being reflected in most congregations. We see entire congregations where the average age is 60 years and older facing their corporate mortality in a few years. This reality calls for those of us concerned with the vitality of the church to look at generational theory.

The Five Generations
These are the five generations as defined by the U.S. Bureau of the Census (with totals through 1997) and as defined by a chart combining George Barna in The Second Coming of the Church and Death of the Church by Mike Regele.

Generation, Years of Birth, Age Range, in 1998 Population Size

Seniors 1926 & earlier 78 & older 19.9 million
Silents 1927 - 1945 77 - 59 39.8 million
Boomers 1946 - 1964 58 - 40 73.1 million
X or Busters 1965 - 1983 21 - 39 72.2 million
Millenials 1982 - 2004 20 & younger 61.7 million

Complete Article...

Evangelism Thinking more... at tens.org

from The Episcopal Network for Stewardship (TENS) Table of Contents.  Contact Tom Gossen, executive director at tom@tens.org for additional information .

Table of Contents
  • Evangelism and Inductive Bible Study
  • One Example of Inductive Bible Study
  • Perspective Questions for Inductive Bible Study
  • Some Texts Appropriate for Evangelism Focused Inductive Bible Study
  • How to Belong to the Christian Faith in an Episcopal Church
  • Conversion, What it Requires, What it Means
  • Storytelling, Witnessing
  • Prayer and Evangelism
  • Engaging the Gospel as a Key to Doing Evangelism
  • Spirituality as a Key to Evangelism

Servant Evangelism more...

from a presentation by Mark Dirksen at "Converted Lives Transforming Congregations", Province I Stewardship and Evangelism Conference, March 28-30, 2003.

Additional information and many more ideas may be found at http://www.servantevangelism.com