LAUNCHING A “CONSTANT CONTACT CONSCIOUSNESS” MINISTRY IN THE LOCAL CHURCH
By: Tim Massengale
Constant Contact Consciousness means exactly what the name implies: being constantly conscience of the need to contact people for the Lord. It is a simple, yet highly effective method to encourage your people to give their personal testimony and share the word of God. Personal witnessing is a powerful method of outreach. It will give a church more home Bible studies, visitors, and prospects than any other ministry.
Giving his personal testimony was the main evangelism tool of the Apostle Paul. Over and over we read of Paul telling his Damascus road experience. We too must accept the Lord’s commandment to, “witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard.” This idea of “life-style evangelism” will only come as we become more conscious of the need to witness and of the opportunities available.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?
The Constant Contact Consciousness ministry is an excellent outreach for many different reasons. Consider the following:
a. C.C.C. is a ministry that any size church – from the very smallest to the very largest – can utilize.
b. It is a ministry that any person, regardless of their skills or abilities, can be involved in. All are called to be witnesses.
c. It is a ministry that has no staff limitations. Unlike Sunday School – which only needs so much personnel – the entire church can
participate in C.C.C.
d. It does not require a set night of the week. Your people can witness anywhere, anytime, to anyone.
e. It is a much needed reminder to your people each week of their personal evangelism efforts. We all need that!
f. It provides the church with an incentive to witness, for they like to keep the weekly C.C.C. number high. They also have a weekly goal to reach for.
g. It provides the pastor with a chance to give recognition to those who are witnessing on a consistent basis. Without this type of
ministry, the pastor never knows.
h. It provides the pastor a regular opportunity to encourage soulwinning and outreach in general, for each week he will be
commenting on the C.C.C. totals.
i. It provides the pastor with a unique “thermometer” of the church’s spiritual condition. When people are on fire for God, the witness. As the fire dies, so does their zeal to tell others.
j. It provides the church with many visitors and home Bible studies, for witnessing is the first step to getting both of these.
k. Finally, involvement in C.C.C. builds strong, overcoming Christians. A long-time alcoholic, who had been totally changed by his
experience with Jesus Christ, was once asked, “How do you do it, Carl? How do you stay off the bottle and faithful to God?” To which he replied, “I just keep giving my testimony for Jesus. I can’t backslide while I’m giving testimony for Jesus.” “And they overcame by . . . the word of their testimony (Rev. 12:11).”
HOW THE MINISTRY WORKS
The ministry of Constant Contact Consciousness is really quite simple.
The following explains the program and how to make it effective:
1. The Constant Contact Consciousness should not be a separate department, but should come under the Outreach Department or some other departments ministry. You may wish to appoint a C.C.C. coordinator to work under the direction of your Outreach director.
2. Start the ministry by having your C.C.C. slips printed (see master sheet at the end of this section) and handing one out to all church members on a major service night. Explain the benefits of C.C.C. and how the ministry works. This is best done on overhead transparency.
3. The Constant Contact Consciousness ministry is very simple to explain. Clearly outline each of the following points:
a) Involvement in C.C.C. does not mean you are committing to witness to a certain number each week, but you are simply committing to fill out a C.C.C. slip each week – whether you have witnessed to anyone or not.
b) No one will ever say anything to you if you failed to witness. This is entirely between you and God. Only you can say if you had the opportunity and failed to take it. The Lord will convict you if you need it – and when the Lord does it, it’s done right!
c) A contact is more than just an invitation to church, but is rather the sharing of any type of personal experience. This might be:
How you came to the Lord.
How you received the Holy Ghost.
How you have been healed in the past.
How you were delivered from drugs or alcohol
The joy and peace of serving God.
Explaining the Word in any meaningful way.
Or ANYTHING the Lord has done for you or shown you.
d) It does not need to be a long, drawn-out time of study or discussion. A contact can take less than two minutes – yet is more
than just inviting them to church.
e) You can witness to the same people week after week, and still count them each time. This is important. You will probably witness 5 or 6 times to someone before you get them to come to church with you. Perhaps twice that many times before you get a home Bible study with them. Each time you talk to them, more seed is being planted.
f) The C.C.C. coordinator will give each person involved a slip each Sunday. You will fill it out and drop it in the offering plate or in another designated location.
g) No record is kept of how many contacts a person has made – only whether they turned in their slip or not. It is important that you are faithful. The total contacts for the church will then be posted each week.
h) All C.C.C. is, is a weekly reminder for you of your personal witnessing. We all need that! We cannot afford to allow a week to pass without talking to someone about the soon coming of Jesus Christ. Time is running out. What we do for Christ must be done quickly!
i) Realize that more doors will now open and more opportunities to witness will now become available. Now that the Lord knows you are serious about being a soulwinner, He will be continually sending people into your path to talk to. You now have a moral obligation to do so.
4. After C.C.C. has been explained and the burden is presented (this is best done during an anointed message on the need to reach the lost), you should ask those who wish to be involved to stand. These names are recorded down by the C.C.C. coordinator.
5. Each Sunday morning, the C.C.C. coordinator will personally hand a slip to each person committed to involvement. They should fill it out and drop it in the offering plate – even if they witnessed to no one.
a. You may wish to designate some individuals to help you pass out the slips. But it is important that they are passed out by hand.
6. The C.C.C. coordinator will collect the slips from the ushers and count up the total number of contacts made. This total figure should then be posted on the Spiral Bulletin Board, or the Attendance Record Board. Inform the pastor in writing of that weeks totals.
7. As you count the slips, check off the names in your record book. Insure that all who are committed to involvement in C.C.C. hand in their slip. If any individual forgets to hand in their slip, give them another on Sunday Night or Bible Study night. Encourage faithfulness.
a. Note: The number witnessed to by each person should never be posted or told.
8. The pastor should take note of the total and comment on it regularly. This becomes an excellent gauge of a churches spiritual
condition. When the number of contacts begins to drop, it’s time to preach soulwinning again. People on fire for God will witness.
9. Goals are established through the Spiral Growth method. Quarterly goals should be divided into monthly goals. If we miss our monthly goals, we will never reach the quarterly goals.
IN CONCLUSION
To have a “constant contact consciousness” should be the goal of every child of God. It is time that we face up to the fact that millions will continue to die in their sins unless we wake up to those that we meet every day. Evangelism should be both planned and spontaneous – planned by the various outreach ministries of the church and spontaneous by the personal evangelism of every believer. The average person meets at least thirty different people every day. Someone must tell them the Good News and warn them of judgement. Who if not us? When if not now? Where if not here? What ministry if not this ministry of personal evangelism: Constant Contact Consciousness.
CONSTANT CONTACT CONSCIOUSNESS
Name____________________________________ Date__________________
Number of Contacts Last Week___________________________________
“And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to TEACH and PREACH Jesus Christ”
(The above material was prepared and published by Tim Massengale from Total Church Growth. You can order the complete 2 volume set from Pentecostal Publishing House.)
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