Topic #2: Introducing Yourself to Others

Here are a few good and brief ways to introduce yourself to others.

If I am talking with someone who I am unsure if they are a Christian or not, I respond this way.  Let’s not forget that we are evangelists. Let’s be winsome, honest, open and non-religious (so as to put an obstacle immediately in the way).  And let’s model and train others.

When they ask me, “What do you do?” or “Who do you work with?”, I typically respond this way:

“I am part of a faith-based non-profit. We are about meaningful relationships, changed lives, and giving people an opportunity to make a difference.”

Sometimes, I will add:

“I am part of a community engagement movement – made up of leaders and volunteers who collaborate to serve the well-being in cities nationwide.”

NOTE: be ready for follow up on these. 

• “Faith-based”?  If you answer it as part of a city gospel movement or church planting movement in your city, you can say: “It’s a  city leadership network that is a coalition of leaders from various churches. “
• “Well-being?” “We help solve problems in our community (you can list some things your church or organization does to serve your community, homelessness, food insecurity, human trafficking, fatherlessness, 3rd grade reading levels in under-performing schools).”
• “Changed-lives”? “We like to hear of people’s journeys and join them on it. If we can, we like to help people with resources to help them develop holistically – including the spiritual area of life (what gives us meaning, purpose, our connection with God).
  (I sometimes use my few-phrase story). “There was a time when I noticed I was putting things in my life that only postponed my emptiness. The void in my life could not be filled. I started pursuing the concept of truth and read the New Testament. I discovered that my concept of God was completely wrong. He wants a relationship with me. I’ve been following Him since then, and feel like I’m moving toward abundance.”

If someone (pastor, leader, supporter, church-planter) asks me what I do or what Church Movements is about, I typically refer to two things, briefly.

1. Church Movements partners to make Jesus known, to multiply the Church and serve the city.
   We help the church focus on 3 Audiences + adopt 1 overarching metric. 
   The 3 Audiences are the Lost, the CoJourner and the Mobilizer. We connect the Lost to Jesus, so we equip followers of Christ to normalize evangelism and disciple-making. We develop disciples of Jesus (to become CoJourners – our word for evangelist) & multiply Mobilizers (missional leaders) 
   The 1 overarching metric is multiplying churches: by sharing the gospel with the lost and seeing a multiplication of leaders – leading to multiplication of churches. 
   As the conversation goes on, I eventually say, “We partner to go after three strategic objectives in the US:
2. The gospel shared and demonstrated to 160 million people in the US
   Establish 160,000 vital, transformational churches/faith communities – giving every unreached person access to one vital church
   1 Million new leaders mobilized to love, win, build, and send”

NOTE: a fuller explanation of Church Movements has been developed over the years for Cru national conferences, Exponential, Amplify, Missio Nexus, Missions Conferences for your MPD. Here it is: CM Talking Points Exponential 2023 – Google Docs