(May 4, 2007) — Evangelism Connections met in Nashville, Tenn., on March 26-27 to discuss how different denominations can work ecumenically on evangelism, share resources, inform each other about what they are doing, and dream about joint future projects.
Representing the Church of the Brethren was Jeff Glass, a member of the Congregational Life Teams staff of the Church of the Brethren General Board. Other participants came from a variety of denominations including African Methodist Episcopal Zion, American Baptists, Disciples of Christ, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Reformed Church in America, United Church of Christ, United Church of Canada, and United Methodist Church.
Currently, the group supports a website found at http://www.evangelismconnections.org/. The site offers an Evangelism Toolkit, articles, links to each denomination’s evangelism resources, and other resources.
The Evangelism Connections group is planning an evangelism conference for 2008 to focus on questions related to facilitating change in congregations made up mostly of elderly members, and how to help those congregations appeal to other generations. More information about the conference will be available following the group’s September planning meeting.
Also, the group is planning to produce a book in 2008 that will focus on motivations for congregations to do evangelism, changes that need to occur within congregations, and evangelism ministry connections or bridges between congregations and their communities. Each denomination will have a chapter in the book to highlight ways that they do evangelism well.
Glass will be hosting the next Evangelism Connections meeting in San Diego, Calif., in September. For more information contact him at 888-826-4951.