GOALS AND EVALUATIONS FOR YOUR PUBLIC RELATIONS Before you contract with any media for ad space, you need to decide, "What do we want to GET out of these ads? What are we paying for?" If you want to count new noses in the congregation because they came in direct response to your advertising, you need to set a trial time-period, determine how many new noses you want, and if they don't show up, quit. This is the typical worldly pattern of management by objectives, and in this case I class this as using advertising for a carnal gimmick. If your purpose is to herald the glad tidings far and wide beyond the beaten paths of your witnessing church members, and if you are trusting the Lord of the Harvest to give increase to His church where and when He sees fit, then it may be hard to evaluate the effectiveness of your efforts any time before that Day. But remember that God ALWAYS blesses faith and obedience. Don't neglect to PRAY that God will put these articles in front of the faces of persons in whom He is working, and call on Him to arrest and rivet their attention. Pray fervently that through your advertising and your face-to-face witness the Father will bring sinners to Himself. Cry out to God to pierce hearts with His Word, to convince stingingly of sin and witness to the reality and attractiveness of our winsome King. Prompt your members to ask the folks they see week by week, "Have you seen our articles in the (paper)? What did you think of it this week?" An article on "Bloody Religion" might provoke objections, but remember that God's people need to take stands on the Truth, and controversy can be good publicity if it's actually based on a gospel stand. Apart from the anointing of the Holy Spirit, your ad campaign will produce nothing of eternal value. With God's anointing, you can shake the planet. If you contract for weekly paid advertisement space, you can certainly use the space for announcements of special events or programs. With several unused articles on the shelf, you can write your own material without fear of "writer's block." With some coaching and editing, other members can write testimony or exhortation. With permission, you can run excerpts from other sources. Be creative. Use your sanctified imagination to deepen and expand the effective ministries of your own people. Your church will become a light on a hill. IDEAS FOR AN OVERLOOKED AND UNDERUSED MEDIUM: YOUR CHURCH NEWSLETTER! Many churches mail out newsletters every week. Many pastors despair of writing or finding material to fill the space week by week, and frantically scramble to buy collections of "Bulletin Bites" or church cartoons, or other uncopyrighted or reproduction-okayed material. (These collections of material meet a genuine need, and I am not criticising any other author.) I would ask you to do two things: 1) consider this collection a source of short material to run in your newsletter; and 2) prompt your members to pass along their newsletters after noting the dates they need. A professionally printed and illustrated gospel tract would have more eye appeal, but a mimeographed or photocopied newsletter lets people know that there is a group of warm breathing PEOPLE who meet at THIS place at THESE times that I can go look at and meet and TALK TO. This effect is squared and cubed if one of your church members gives a personal invitation to visit along with the newsletter. Think about it. --CCP EXAMPLE CONTRACT FOR A COVENANT GROUP We the undersigned covenant together to 1) pray for each other daily by name for the next 70 days; 2) to meet together at least once a week, unless providentially hindered, for conversational prayer, intercession for each other, for our local church ministries, for our nation, and for nations and Christian workers around the world. NORMAL MEETING TIMES dates: from _______to_______; time: [e.g. 5:30 am Thu] 3) We agree to put a high priority on meeting together during this season, and will call the coordinator if unable to attend any session. 4) We agree during this time to memorize [a section of Scripture, e.g. Mt 5-7, James, or Colossians], and to read [a book, e.g. Destined for the Throne, by Paul Billheimer, CLC; or How to Give Away Your Faith, by Paul Little, IVP] 5) [Decide: ] We will /will not be free to bring Christian /nonChristian guests along with us to our meetings. [Leave space for about 6 signatures and phone #'s, the Coordinator's being #1] [A covenant group such as this should probably have a minimum of four people of the same sex and preferably same marital status, though you could have a married person, especially as coordinator, among college students or singles. In application of James 5:16, members would need freedom to speak frankly and trust that all personal information is spoken in confidence unless specified that it is open. This is the best reason to limit guests. Six people is probably a good working maximum, because much beyond that size free dialog/multilog becomes very unlikely. The duration limit is important. This is not like getting married for life: important for students. It should be considered equivalent to taking a short-term job with a very finiky boss. This is a commitment to BE THERE ten times and to DO what you agreed to do.] EXAMPLES OF LOCAL CHURCH ADS from the Word of Life Fellowship, 2090 Newnan St., East Point, GA 30344 USA, run in the Southside Sun. * 7-11-85 JESUS IS LORD "We are proclaiming: that if you confess with your mouth, `Jesus is Lord', and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, `Everyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame'." (Romans 10:8-11 NIV) Many Christians have divided their lives into a religious area, of which Jesus is Lord, and all other "secular" areas: work, hobbies, sports, family, etc., in which they act like other folks. The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ is Lord over EVERY area of life, and that EVERYTHING which is not SIN is SPIRITUAL under God. Every legitimate activity can and must be done in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to the glory of God and in the power of the Holy Spirit. This includes preaching, cleaning carburetors, preparing legal briefs, washing dishes or changing diapers. We need to develop a view of every area of life and the world that says, "Jesus Christ is Lord of ALL!" * 7-4-85 "WHAT ABOUT THE HEATHEN WHO'VE NEVER HEARD?" This question is often asked as a religious smoke screen by folks who want to shift a Christian worker's attention to something other than their sin. The apostle Paul wrote, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written,'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.'" (Romans 10:13-15 NIV) To become a Christian, or to "get saved", requires believing the Good News about Jesus Christ. To believe it requires that you be exposed to it through a personal witness or through some communications medium such as this article. We're concerned about "the heathen", too! And we pray that you who read this will trust in Jesus Christ, learn how to share His Good News, and go out and TELL PEOPLE! CCP * 7-18-85 CLOSET CHRISTIANS Are you an undercover Christian? Do you think that the people around you at work or at school or anywhere else would think you were "weird", if they knew that Jesus Christ is the Savior and the Lord of your life? In the gospel of John, we read that "many even of the rulers believed in Jesus, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God." (John 12:42-43) It was mainly in the synagogue that the rulers were plotting how to trap and kill Jesus. Identifying yourself out loud as a "Jesus Person" will save you out of a lot of uncomfortable and tempting situations. It may bring you some scorn, but it also will bring you respect from folk who will admire you for voicing your convictions. "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the adversary." (Ps 107:2) In other words, let the Lord's redeemed TALK about it! --CCP Clyde C. Price, Jr. is a lifelong resident of metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia. He holds from Georgia State University a B.A. degree in Journalism and a B.A. degree in Classics (mostly Greek). He holds the Master of Divinity degree from the Atlanta School of Biblical Studies, and is continuing in further studies. For over 18 years, Mr. Price has been active in singing, preaching and teaching ministries involving children, teens, adults, and American and International college students. He is currently involved in tentmaking business enterprises and writing projects based in the Atlanta area, and is actively seeking opportunities for ministry. He can be reached at (404) 761-2327, or P.O.Box 667, Red Oak, GA 30272-0667 USA; or via CompuServe, #76616,3452. This edition of ARROWS FOR YOUR QUIVER was prepared in 5 separate text files to facilitate use by non-IBM- compatible computer users. My proposed filenames are: AR-A.TXT AR-B.TXT AR-C.TXT AR-D.TXT AR-E.TXT I request that you list them ARROWS.xxx, and if you operate a BBS or other online information system, please try to make some provision for the lower-RAM "little guys" also to have access to this material in ASCII form. Please share the material widely and freely, and if you would, write to me. May God make you fruitful in the Gospel. ccp.