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UPCOMING EVENTS
Welcome
to Across New England! We pray that that God d
oes great things with and
through your church as we all work together to share Christ to all New
England by 2020. Please register for the campaign at the button above. 
Here is information that will be helpful to you...
What is Across New England About?
As a part of our of our State Convention Evangelism Strategy, we have adopted the this evangelism initiative which began in 2008 and launched officially in 2010.
Background It's a big God sized endeavor by Southern Baptists to
reach all New Englanders with the Gospel. It's a four element plan of Praying, Sowing, engaging and Harvesting
with a goal to pray for and give a gospel witness to every person in
New England by the year 2020! What a big God sized task!
Every Believer Sharing, Every Person in New England Hearing by 2020
Bi-Annual Themes
Every other year leading up to 2020, we in New England and all over North America will endeavor to hold theme actions for those years. Each action continues the process of seed sowing and sharing the gospel to every person.
- For 2010: Across New England (Sow seed)
- Proposed for 2012: Reaching Across N.E. ( Attractional Events)
- Proposed for 2014: Serving Across N.E. (Serving the Community)
- Proposed for 2016: Sharing Across N.E. (All SBC members pray for 3)
- Proposed for 2018: Start Something Across N.E. (Start New Ministry, group or church)
There are a number of elements to Across New England that are distinctively New England. The impact of this bold saturation sowing campaign has already been felt. We piloted this project in Easter of 2009 in five areas and then the full campaign in 2010 with 93 churches participating. The Lord blessed in each case with either an increase in visitors or a greater awareness or participation from the church memberships in prayerwalking and seed sowing. We believe that the methods of this initiative are sound, transferable to any context and useful as a methodology for many years to come.
As the aspects of resourcing this effort Across New England are a bit more challenging because of the economy and the lostness we meet each day here, the Lord is weaving together resources from several sources to enable and even increase our effort. Because of this, the BCNE will be able to supplement the efforts of every church in order to make this affordable to all.
Testimonies Show God at Work
Look at what some churches said happened last year during their Easter emphasis:
- Southcoast Community Church- Scarborough, ME- Double the attendance at their Easter Extravaganza· Capstone Baptist- Bennington, VT- 65 regular attendance, 109 for Easter
- Timothy Baptist Church- Roxbury, MA- 25 first time visitors· Cambridgeport- Cambridge, MA- Full house attendance
- Brookville Baptist- Holbrook, MA- Increase of 100 people who attended Easter Worship
- Pastor Shaun Pillay of Cornerstone International Church in Norwich, CT reports what ANE did for their church family:
- It bought our church family together; it is OUR project.
- People who we least expected, got involved and they are on board with the vision of 'sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with every person in the city of Norwich.
- We are meeting to discuss outreach programs for the summer.
- ANE became, not a project but an experience for our small church family. We continue to engage in this experience.
2 Most Important Elements
It
is very important to recognize the two most important elements to this
effort. The power of prayer, particularly your church members being
mobilized to pray for specific people, homes and neighborhoods as well
as the power of multi-message marketing. Multi-message marketing means
that the more often a person sees a message in their locality, the
greater the response to it. A person or family having their household
prayed for, hearing a radio spot, seeing a yard sign or
banner in front of your church, then will be more positively drawn to
the invitation left on their doorknob. Both of these elements create a
deeper impact through saturation seed sowing.
Reach Across New England 2012 / 2013 Campaign
The evangelistic effectiveness of churches planning, conducting and following up attractional events is a well tested and researched matter. Download these documents for more:
We encourage churches to continue what was begun in Easter 2010 in this new campaign theme for 2012, Reaching Across New England which emphasizes Aattractional Events. Please register for this emphasis to participate, even if you have in the past...
- Each church being able to get a list of names and addresses of target neighborhoods.
- Prayer walking target areas and then distributing promotion materials.
- Media
promotion of events. Use of banners, invitation cards and promotional
media. This season will feature Facebook advertising all over New
England.
- The use of the "Find It Here" website for sharing the gospel and leading people to your church.
- Subsidy from the BCNE for the purchase of materials.
A few things that are different:
- More extensive use of Facebook for advertising.
- A longer period of time for churches to do their events extending from March to July.
- This year and next is about any attractional event that your church wishes to hold.
- Some
items are not directly available from the BCNE: yard signs, banners,
gospel cards or mini-invitation cards. Each church needs to purchase
their own promotion materials from Outreach
- The theme is: Hope. Find It Here.
Working Together To Hold Evangelistic Events Every
church is an Attractional Church on some level. An Attractional Church
plans and prepares for special times of involving believers and
inviting unconnected people to evangelistic services or bridge building
events that lead to gospel encounters. Your church can join others in
hosting one of these events this coming year anytime from March through July.
Utilizing
well planned and prepared events is a common denominator in 92% of
America’s most evangelistic churches. This year’s theme is “Reaching Across New England.”
It’s our hope that your church will join with 1000’s of other SBC
churches in the Spring of 2012 / 2013 to utilize Attractional Events to
Disciple your People and Reach People using the four biblical markers of ANE .
We participate in this campaign because churches laboring together increases the effectiveness of evangelism overall – a rising tide lifts all boats.
The 7 Top Reasons We Participate Together:
- To encourage one another to greater works (Rom.1:11-12; 1 Thes. 5:11; John14:12)
- To intentionally utilize events to disciple church members. We grow in effectiveness and teaching- we learn from one another and find expanding ways to reach people with the Gospel (Prov. 9:9; Mat. 13:52)
- In order to take advantage of Facebook advertising which will take place throughout New England during this period
- To make use of $250 in grant money towards promotional materials for the evangelistic event (more possibly once we know how many churches will participate)
- To take advantage of 24/7 resources through website and evangelism response center at FindItHere.com
- To increase the seed sowing of our communities in order that God may grow the harvest (Isa. 55:11; 1 Cor. 3:8)
- To reflect Christ’s glory (John 17:23)
Reaching Across New England involves churches committing to these simple steps:
2. An eight-week promotion prayerwalk campaign utilizing all media possible prior to the event.
3. Hosting, planning, and implementing a community-reaching evangelistic event sometime from March to July, 2012
4. Conduct some form of evangelism training (ex: personal evangelism, follow up counselor training or ERC training). The BCNE is willing to assist in providing desired training.
5. Prayerwalking and distributing invitations** to the event one to two weeks beforehand
6. Afterward, doing follow-up with those who attended (see also p. 29 of the Preparation Guide)
7. Using the “Hope-Find It Here” logo (seen here to the right- just
select image, right
click and select "save image"), website and ERC phone number in promotional literature. You will need to use
the following text line:
FinditHere.com
For Spiritual Help Call: 1-888-537-8720
**Caution: Be sure to follow all local rules, regulations, and laws in placing promotional materials (i.e., home owners associations, private property, and mailboxes)
Think of an evangelistic event as a relational door to your community that provides a great opportunity to reach lost people for Christ.
- Local Church Revival
- Friend Day
- Area Crusade
- Felt Needs Conference
- Arts Event (Dinner Theater, Concert, Art Exhibit)
- Servant Evangelism Project
- Sporting Event
- Block Parties / Fairs
Promotion Materials or Resources for Your Event
There are a number of tools any church can use to make their event known to the community. Outreach.com will be able to provide Reach Across New England churches with any of about 9 predesigned theme sets of resources designed for different types of events and ethnic groups. Go to their website and simply use their search feature for: "Find It Here" resources. Each set includes items like bulletin inserts, flyers, banners and more- just use what works with your event. Once the church’s material is ordered and received, a church can photo copy their custom event information onto the pre-printed material using a photo copier.
Don't forget, by registering with the BCNE, you will be eligible for a $250 (or greater) grant toward the purchase of your promotion materials.
We encourage our Reach Across New England churches to consider any one or all of the following depending on the attractional event they are planning:
2. Invite card
3. Posters
4. Banner
5. Door Hanger
6. Small business card sized invitations
7. Use of your website & Social Media
For more information and for recommended resources you can use to make your own promotion material, go to our Preparation Guide for Pastors/Churches (pg. 40-42).
