Workshops in Cyrildene, Johannesburg, South Africa.

By John and Heather Holder

On Sunday, September 8, thirty one members of the Cyrildene congregation greeted the recent arrival of spring with a four-hour workshop designed to begin a rejuvenation of the congregation. Based on ideas expressed in several books including The Purpose Driven Church by Rick Warren, Natural Church Development by Christian Schwarz and Building Missionary Congregations by Robert Warren, the workshop set out to raise awareness in the congregation of nine health factors that contribute to a vibrant and growing church. There were two slide presentations and two breakout sessions, where members discussed the nine health factors in relation to their congregation. This was followed by a joint feedback session where group leaders presented their groups’ ratings as to how the congregation was faring in each of the nine areas. .

The nine health factors covered were:

1. A Christ-centred focus.
2. Members who are led by the Holy Spirit.
3. Members who express love to others.
4. Members who fellowship together.
5. Worship services that are inspiring.
6. Members who become disciples of Christ through sound teaching.
7. Members who use their gifts and talents to serve one another.
8. Members who are active in evangelism – fulfilling the ‘Great Commission’.           
9. Members filled with desire to fulfil God’s purposes for them.

The workshop ended with a question and answer session with pastors Jimmy Nicolau, Ron Roy and Timothy Maguire. Members attending the workshop received a manual containing background material and discussion questions for all of the health factors. Pastor Jimmy Nicolau described the occasion as “a purposeful drive toward the vision of a balanced and healthy church.”

Follow-up Workshop

A follow-up workshop took place on Saturday, December 7, in the place of normal church services. The theme of this workshop was “Sharing your Faith”. About 80 members from the Cyrildene and Johannesburg South congregations participated in this workshop. A slide presentation covered key issues and principles of personal evangelism. This was followed by a short drama by Anna and Kirsten Marsh where a number of the principles were role played for the congregation. They made it look so easy! Congregation members then went into breakout groups where they discussed some key aspects of sharing one’s faith in personal evangelism.

Later, during a feedback session, group leaders shared the highlights of their discussions with the congregation. Much of the material for the workshop was drawn from Mr Tkach’s article on personal evangelism (see this edition of the WN) and from a book entitled Becoming a Contagious Christian by Bill Hybels and Mark Mittelberg. The workshop covered six steps to sharing one’s faith, namely, to pray hard for the opportunities, words and courage needed, to be intentional, to be an authentic Christian, to nudge conversations in the direction of spiritual topics, to be able to communicate the gospel message clearly, and to understand six styles of personal evangelism. These styles are:  Dorcas’ service approach, the blind man’s testimonial approach, the Matthew party, the “Come and see” example of the woman of Samaria, Peter’s confrontational approach and Paul’s reasoning approach.

Members of the Cyrildene and Johannesburg South churches participated in the workshops with enthusiasm.

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