News and Information

NEWS FLASH: IN JUST FIVE WEEKS, SELECTED PARISHES IN OUR DIOCESE PERSONALLY INVITED 6,000 PEOPLE TO OUR CHURCHES.
OVER 2,000 PEOPLE SAID, “YES WE WANT TO VISIT YOUR CHURCH,”
AND 2,600 REQUESTED PRAYER.
by Carrie Boren, Missioner for Evangelism

embers of our Diocese have often said, "We want to grow our church, reach out to people, and invite folks to our parish. Yet, how do we find them? How do we invite people in our surrounding neighborhoods whom we do not know? Mass mailings? Door to door? What can we do? Where do we begin?"

The desire to reach those who do not know Jesus Christ is at the very core of God's heart. He is the great Missionary who passionately wants everyone to know Him. From the time of Jesus' earliest followers until now, the church's central purpose has been to reconcile the world to God and one another through Jesus Christ.

The Diocese of Dallas has collaborated with Harvest Unlimited, an innovative program that is working with parishes throughout our diocese: Terrell, Athens, Kemp, Ennis, Waxahachie, Corsicana, Kaufman, Canton, Oak Cliff, Cedar Hill, Dallas, Coppell, and DeSoto.

Harvest Unlimited helps local churches set up "call centers," and for five weeks, members of these parishes call neighbors in their communities from a call list and ask the following:

"Hello, my name is _____ from _____ church. We are calling to invite people to our church. Do you have a
church home?"

If the person answers in the affirmative, our caller says, "We do not want to interfere with your church membership. But while I have you on the phone, is there anything about which we can pray for you? We have a team of people here tonight who are praying for the needs of folks in our community."

If the individual asks for prayer, someone takes the request to the prayer room. After team members pray for the request, they send a handwritten note to the person for whom they prayed.

If the called party has no church home, our callers ask if he or she is interested in visiting their parish. To those who respond positively, parish members send an invitation for a special Harvest Sunday and follow up with an additional call the week before the event. On Harvest Sunday, greeters welcome the guests to their church service and a celebratory meal afterwards.

The week following this celebration, parishioners hand-deliver gift baskets to every visitor. The gifts consist of goodies plus a booklet on Christianity, information about the church, and ways to get involved in the parish.

This program has produced results beyond our expectations and given our parishes a vision for mission. Participants have reported that God has strengthened their faith as they have stepped out of their comfort zones and invited new people into
their parishes.

These churches are getting a reputation in their communities. Rebecca Wellborn from St. Paul, Waxahachie, has reported that people throughout her community have begun to refer to St. Paul as "the praying church." The prayer ministry of her church and the others that participated in Harvest have touched many people. Sharon Langlais from Kaufman has exclaimed, "If you want to see God at work, do Harvest Unlimited."

Harvest's method for reaching those without a church is yielding higher results than traditional marketing and outreach. Whether they are urban or rural, large or small, churches throughout the country are finding that
25 percent of those whom they contact express an interest in attending their services. Because they have received a personal invitation, respondents will attend.

Praying for real people, real families - who live right next door - radically changes churches and energizes them to focus beyond their fours walls. As Jesus has said, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord … to send out workers into his harvest" (Luke 10:2). We are thankful for the countless parishioners in our diocese who have labored much for the harvest.

If you are interested in this program, please contact Missioner for Evangelism, Carrie Boren
(cboren@episcopal-dallas.org) or Eric Erickson (214-693-5710; Eric@HarvestUnlimited.org) and
Jim McKinney (817-715-1986; Jim@HarvestUnlimited.org) or go to www.harvestunlimited.org.

Testimonies from the parishes
St. Matthias', Athens
Invited: 406
Asked for prayer: 136
Indicated an interest in visiting: 98
Attended Harvest Sunday: 6

"We intend to continue calling after Easter, and repeat the Harvest Unlimited Program. It has been so positive. We had a fantastic luncheon and 59 people attended the church service — a higher attendance than we had at Christmas. Three of our Harvest families returned last Sunday. One brought three new visitors with them! We are still expecting some of the other 'yes' families to visit through this Sunday. My follow-up plan includes home visits and
phone calls."
(Fr. Perschal)

"Harvest brought our congregation together with renewed enthusiasm. I was amazed how everyone came and worked together."
(Al Davis, Senior Warden)

"An incredible experience."
(Betty Glaspy, parishioner)

"A woman who had been diagnosed with breast cancer called the church and left a message saying how much she was moved and strengthened by knowing a church was praying
for her."
(Fr. Dennis Smart)

"Thanks be to God! We had 20 people, including 10 heads of households, attend the service and stay for lunch this Sunday. This was exactly as Harvest Unlimited had predicted. Everything went very well and we are meeting Monday to work on follow-up.

May I take this moment to express my sincere appreciation to all: to Carrie for facilitating what seemed like only an unobtainable dream for a small church; to Bishop Stanton, Canon Lambert, Canon Michell, and our priest for their support; to Jim McKinney (Harvest) for hearing and following God's call and Eric Erickson (Harvest), a multitalented and ever-patient man. Both of them are truly a dream team and a blessing to work with and to know. God Bless You All!"
(Sharon Langlais, parishioner)

"We have been busy taking thank you gifts to folks we talked to in the area. We had five returning families this Sunday and some new people whom we called but could not attend the actual
Harvest Sunday. One woman we invited is now in our choir. We are almost finished with our 'Thank You Gift' deliveries, and we have scheduled an Assimilation Team meeting for
April 11.

We already have a Bible Study between services led by Father Hill, a nursery with a mural of Noah's Ark, and a dedicated teacher from our parish who believes the Holy Spirit has called her to be the little children's teacher. She is wonderful, and the children have already bonded with her. She has a puppet for each child. The visiting children had a wonderful time and were so excited that they told their Grandmother to bring them every Sunday.

Thank you all for your support in this most important effort. God bless each of you."
(Yolanda, Follow-Up Coordinator)

"A coordinator continued to do her job while she and her church family grieved over the untimely death of her nephew. Another was in the ER the night before with a migraine. Nevertheless, she showed up to be part of the prayer team. Still another intercessor had a sudden onset of dangerously high blood pressure and was under the care of her physician. However, she never missed her evening to pray.

One night, a gentleman parishioner arrived at the church after having driven from Louisiana. His day had started at 3 a.m. He had driven to Louisiana on business and then returned to Kaufman in time to pray that evening. By the time he left the church, he had worked a
20-hour day!

A prayer recipient wrote to her intercessor, 'Thank God for people like you who care for
others. … God bless you for being my prayer partner when I was feeling low in my spirit.'

Another recipient described our Harvest program as 'a ministry of love.'

One individual wrote, 'I wanted to thank you so much for all of your prayers. … For someone who doesn't even know me — to go out of your way and to do that for me — I am most grateful. God bless you.'

A lady told her prayer partner, 'You will never know how much your cards have meant!' Her husband was on hospice. He had asked to leave the hospital and go home, and she was trying to honor his request. She concluded her conversation by saying, 'Please, just pray !'

When one of our intercessors was waiting to enter a restaurant with a group of women, she felt a tap on her shoulder. As she turned around, a smiling older woman said, 'I got my card from you … and thank you.'

As I visited a home bound, elderly woman to deliver her "'thank you' gift, I stood with her at the door and we had a brief but sweet visit. When it was time to go, we hugged each other and I instinctively kissed her gently on her cheek. We held hands a few seconds longer and with a tear in eye she said, 'God bless you.' We will probably never see each other again, but I won't forget that moment in time that we shared."
(Sharon)

"Fantastic experience! We have loved it! We had one new person join our band."
(parishioner)

"It appears that God has spoken. We are ready for the harvest — to share Good Shepherd with new friends and neighbors, people for whom we have already been praying!

What an incredible blessing God has given each of us during this work! During the calling sessions, it was wonderful to hear things like 'I'm warming up to this,' and 'Isn't it awesome?' and 'Listen to this!' In the beginning, few of us were excited about calling strangers, but all of us were elated at the end! Obedience to the call of the Holy Spirit, who was at work in this project, made the difference.

I thank God for everyone who had a hand in this for the blessings I have received through this opportunity to serve the Lord."
(Brenda Pierson)

St. Paul, Waxahachie
Invited: 701
Asked for prayer: 231
Indicated an interest in visiting: 79
Attended Harvest Sunday: 36

"God is doing great things in this parish and community through Harvest. Everyday we hear stories about how it is influencing lives.
Praise God!"
(Fr. Terry Reisner)

Rebecca Wellborne reported,
"New people stayed a long time after the lunch. We delivered guest packages with Lee Strobel's book, A Case for Easter to all visitors!

Fr. Terry reported that, when he walked around town introducing himself as the new priest at St. Paul, people said, 'Oh, that is the church that is praying for our community.'

One person asked for prayer that God would grant a financial blessing to his church that has been struggling. St. Paul prayed for this big church. A short time later, St. Paul got a voice message on its answering machine saying, 'After you prayed, we got a check for $11,000 and we all said it was due to the prayer of the little praying church, St. Paul.'

Another person called St. Paul and reported that the next day after our phone call to her, she had received answers to her prayer request that God would provide financially for her son.

One night, St. Paul ministered to many people with the same prayer request regarding a teenager who had committed suicide that day. The prayer team continues to hold the community in prayer."

"We had 21 to 23 harvest visitors this Sunday (21 first time visitors and two others who had visited earlier and who came on Harvest Sunday as well).

This is exactly the number of visitors Eric had told us to expect out of the 65 who had said they would come. We're thrilled! I'm happy because it "got us off the dime" and put us in the pro-active category when it comes to evangelism. In the process, several dozen people who participated in the Harvest project had a tremendous learning experience, and we have begun to transform our church. We've become a 'welcoming congregation,' and for that, I am
most grateful."
(Fr. Todd Wetzel)

"We had 10 families with 32 people, including one Grandma who is raising five grandchildren. Six families signed on right away and wanted to be included in cell growth groups. The others said they would be back; so, we'll see. Everything went smoothly, and the dinner was lovely. WHEW! Can't wait to hear how the others did today."
(Cherie)

"What an awesome experience this has been!"
(Marc Hutchens)

"I wanted to share with you two experiences we encountered during our Harvest outreach
this week.

Jill Clark shared with me a message that a woman had left on the Good Shepherd's voice mail around 10:30 p.m. on March 7. She said she already had a church home but called to say that God had answered one of her prayer requests. When we called her on March 5, she had asked for "financial blessings" for her kids. Less than two days later, her son, who was looking for work, was playing basketball and met a former professional athlete who now has his own business. He offered her son a job AND offered him some money to help him pay
his rent!

The other incident was the only 'yes' I had received on March 8. It was from a woman who had agreed to come to our 'Shepherd Sunday' on March 25 with her two children. Her prayer request was for her husband who had 'just left.' Judging from the way she said this, I don't think she meant he just left for a business trip. I think he really left HER. Even though she probably felt rejected, her only request was that we pray for him, and this touched me. I delivered the prayer request to Tom and Judy in our chapel and joined in the prayers for this family. I just couldn't call any more that night. I hope she shows up on March 25.

Through the pain and, yet, hope and joy I experienced within a couple hours, I know now more than ever that 'our God is an Awesome God.'"
(dj mills)

"Some new people stayed so long after church, we started cleaning the room. Two new people who were seated next to each other on Harvest Sunday were both engineers and found they had lots in common."
(parishioner)

"Thanks for the opportunity that allowed us at Epiphany to participate in the Harvest approach that takes steps to win and save souls for Christ."
(parishioner)

"It's my belief that the demands of the 'Harvest process' make you take an outer journey that is accompanied by an equally serious inner journey. It also provides an opportunity for neighbors to get to know our congregation in a non-threatening setting and to hear about the Christian faith in a low-key fashion. THANK YOU!"
(John Johnson, Senior Warden)

"Hey, all of you Harvest wonderful people. Our Sunday was a great success and we are making plans to move on with an aggressive Evangelism Campaign."
(Michael Barnes, evangelism chair)

"Three new people have already asked to join the choir."
(parishioner)

"We just started calling last week. The night before last, we completed 57 calls and prayed for over 25 prayer requests! Last night, we made 60 calls with nine people saying "YES!" Whew! Our first week is almost over."
(parishioner)

"Praying for strangers on Monday was really powerful. I kept telling people at work about it on Tuesday. They were all so impressed that our church is doing this. I'm so grateful to be a part of this ministry."
(Karen)

"I am so proud of those who have taken on his ministry. They have found that a blessing has come to them as well as those who now know we are here and we are welcoming.

Pray for them. They deserve our support and thanks."
(Fr. Gerry Sevick)

"I want to let you know what a blessing it has been for me to participate in the 'Harvest Sunday' project. I never dreamed I'd find myself phoning complete strangers to invite them to church. I'm typically a shy person; so when I volunteered for this I had no idea why I was doing it, because it was WAY out of my comfort zone. However, I am so glad I did it.

I have talked to some wonderful folks in the DeSoto community and found that, whether 'churched' or 'unchurched,' they genuinely seemed to appreciate the call, especially when I let them know that we had a prayer team available that very night for any prayer requests they
might have.

Sometimes just a few words of comfort or kindness and the offer of prayer are all that's needed to open the door to someone. So, thanks for this opportunity. What an easy and joyful way to reach out to folks for the Lord!"
(Karen Hauser)