Increasing Effectiveness and Efficiency through a Collaborative evangelism Strategy within the Georgia-Cumberland Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Victor Maddox

Problem There were a number of organizations, ministries, and individuals throughout the Georgia-Cumberland Conference (GCC) territory engaged in various forms of evangelism which include health education, literature distribution, media presentations, community service, Bible instruction, etc. All had some level of success. Personal observations of these efforts revealed a redundancy in programing, uncoordinated planning, insufficient record-keeping, inadequate follow-up on interests generated, and failure to build upon the results of previous evangelistic meetings within the GCC. Method The goal was to improve the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the evangelism process in the GCC through the coordination of evangelistic meetings between organizations, ministries, and individuals whose emphasis is on sharing the gospel message. These meetings focused on ways to work collaboratively to develop, implement, and evaluate a conference-wide process for evangelism that incorporated the evangelistic specialties of each participant. Three phases of the evangelistic process were identified: "pre-work" for training and preparation, "the event" where the proclamation or execution of the evangelism effort took place, and "post-work" consisting of intentional follow-up practices. Results There was an overall improvement of the evangelism process within the GCC through a determination to continue working collaboratively. Communication and coordination of plans between churches, organizations, ministries, and others are becoming a standard practice. Collaboration has resulted in better planned meetings, intentionality in building upon the results of past efforts, and better handing off work from one practitioner to the next, better follow-up of interests, and continued support of the collaborative process. An increase of collaborative evangelistic efforts in the GCC has been planned throughout the conference by various organizations and congregations. Conclusion Through the process of evangelistic collaboration, the silos of separation between entities have been relaxed, and the sense of territorialism has decreased. The accomplishment of the work of the gospel through collaboration has increased the effectiveness of evangelism in the GCC.