Organic Outreach for Churches: Infusing Evangelistic Passion in Your Local Congregation

by Kevin G. Harney

Nearly all churches and ministries consider themselves dedicated to evangelism, and many explicitly include outreach in their mission statements. But few are actually bearing fruit. Kevin Harney diagnoses this problem and offers guidance for multiplying the outreach impact of churches. Organic Outreach for Churches provides direction for local congregations to weave evangelism into the fabric of the church. Commitment to the Great Commission is not simply about sending money and prayers to missions or holding occasional events to reach out (although these things are good). Organic outreach happens when evangelistic vision and action become the domain of every ministry and the commitment of every person in the congregation. This will not happen accidentally. There is huge spiritual and practical resistance to such changes. But the only way evangelism will become an organic part of a church is when every leader and each member is gripped by a commitment to proclaiming the gospel. This book is a roadmap for pastors and leaders who wish to infuse evangelistic passion into every aspect of their church's life.

Genres: Christian, Spirituality, Theology, Evangelism

208 pages, Paperback

First published October 11, 2011

Reviews

[Mark E. Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful for churches looking to take steps towards outreach

[Evan Hoekzema · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was an easy and helpful read. I loved the overall premise of ownership when it comes to evangelism within a church. I think the whole team mindset really does break down barriers and help move a church towards aligning behind one focus. I even appreciated his simple yet profound insights around the One Degree Rule and the Two Degree Rule. To me it seemed heavy on convincing the reader that evangelism matters rather than giving some practical nuts and bolts to push through barriers and see growth in the area of ownership around evangelism. It’s a good read, I recommend you put it on your list.

[Aaron Case · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great and important book for church leaders. Stop what you are doing right now and read this book!

[Bradley Somers · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has lots of great biblical principles for outreach. You will also find enthusiastic vision for making outreach a whole church initiative. There are lots of ideas to building a system for infusing a local church to think outreach. There will be lots of inspirational take aways if you read this book, and you should. I am a bit lost on the “ organic “ part of the book. The recommendations mostly are for vision-erring within a larger church or an established church context (which may prove really helpful to pastor, leaders, vision-casters); less time is spent on leveraging the organic day to day life for the sake of the kingdom.

[Glynn Tafuro · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a good book to begin strategizing for yoru chruch's outreach program, and I have no doubt the plans listed in this book are effective should they be put to honest use. However, I'd like to see something like this for churches striving to reach people and give specific examples, stories, and specific tactics that have been proven to work.

In short, this is a great recipe. I'd like to see a meal.

[Jonathan Brooker · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I didn't find it to be inaccurate, this book really lacked any content I could consider profound or that could serve as unique insight into growing outreach at my church. Since many examples leaned in this direction, perhaps it would serve to be more helpful for those contexts where the church has long been established, has a multitude of in-house ministries, and yet lacks any real focus on outreach to its community.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

The thesis of this book is outreach (evangelism) in churches doesn't happen without intentionality. Thus, the author provides several practical ways churches, and their people, can create a culture of evangelism. Recommended for any church staff or member that wants to become more evangelistic and mobilize their people to great outreach opportunities.

[Sam Creagar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gives clear, practical, and Scripture-based advice for increasing strategic/intentional evangelism at your church. As an Outreach Pastor I greatly appreciated this book. Excited to implement some of its ideas.

[Richard Wollard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Practical application

This is a great book to use with a team. It has some really good ideas and great application for ministry.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave great directions and easy ideas to help your church reach out to the community around you. Many things our church does already but are in need of some tweaking!! Great book!!

[Mathew Irwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great process for creating change in a church for everyone to be an outreach church

[C.A. Cranfill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the premise of creating a culture where evangelism saturates everything that you do. Where evangelism isn’t just another program but the pervading DNA of every other existing program. The author does a great job of creating diagnostic tools to determine where your church’s evangelistic temperature is currently. He then provides avenues to help that temperature increase. This is a great resource for plateaued and declining churches.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book to help churches begin to look at outreach as a part of everything they do, not just a once or twice a year event.

[Elizabeth Woodworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Soooo good.

[Adriane Devries · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kevin Harney, pastor, author and consultant, equips stagnant churches worldwide to become havens of vibrant outreach and growth. With strategies that easily translate into the basic tenants of a happy and friend-filled life, Harney encourages Jesus followers to shake off the corporate habits of inwardly-focused organizations and make outreach more than a mere slice of the annual budget, centralizing instead as the common goal of every separate ministry. For outreach to become sustainable, more like a marathon than a sprint, participants must be able to pace themselves to continue without giving up and must train regularly in order to stay in shape. By changing habits of negativism and replacing them with prayer and innovation; by taking things it already does well and turning these outward into the community; and budgeting outrageously for its money, time and resources toward people who are spiritually disconnected, the Church’s temperature for outreach, or “love quotient,” will heat up and become a blessing to the world.

[James Korsmo · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's clear from these carefully thought out chapters that Harney has developed this material over many years and through much consultation with a variety of churches. Some of his key insights, such as the one-degree rule (we should honestly assess our own "evangelism temperature" on a scale of one to ten and then seek to raise it by one degree) and the two-degree rule (we should take the ministries of our churches and adjust the focus outward by two degrees; that is, we should take what we're already doing and find ways to broaden the reach beyond church members) are such worthwhile insights that are both nonthreatening (which is no easy feat in the evangelism context) and exciting. I look forward to finding ways to implement facets of this at our church.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It was simple but had a few good ideas. Two in particular stand out. 1) The one degree rule which encourages people to keep increasing their outreach temperature by one degree. 2) The two degree rule which encourages churches to utilize existing programs for people outside the church. The best example was an administrative pastor who figured out that he could use their financial training program for people in the community. I also liked the suggested structure he gave for churches to get someone from every ministry in the church on the outreach team.

[Cheryl Reber]

A must read before starting any work. Important foundational concepts. Save yourself the trouble of having to de-structure later.

[Grant Page · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for any outreach ministry