Updated and Improved Newsletter Evangelism Approach Using
Muscle And A Shovel
Welcome to NEWSLETTER EVANGELISM! This is perhaps the easiest, most effective evangelism program you will ever experience! It is as simple as giving acquaintances a half dozen newsletters, which you will find at this website, and ask these individuals to evaluate them for a church outreach program. Once they have read and have given you their thoughts about these newsletters, you thank them for their help and ask them for one other favor! Ask them if they would evaluate an extremely popular, best selling, faith based book? Tell them that if they do, they will have the opportunity to keep the book to share with friends and family members or to give the book back to you to share with others. Nothing more complicated than that.
My newsletters have always been very popular with almost everyone who receives them. This is a great NEW approach that I recently used and I have been blown away by the positive response I have had with people that I used it with! To read and review six newsletters doesn't take very long and most people will enjoy and appreciate reading them! Once they read the newsletters, it's an easy step to ask for one more favor. Ask if they will read and evaluate Michael Shank's best selling book, Muscle And A Shovel. They have already gladly participated in reviewing the newsletters so, for many of them, it will be only natural to gladly review a best selling book. The book then becomes a basis for salvation dialogue and sharing the gospel. Wow! Really simple and fun!
How do you get your church involved in this evangelism outreach program? Almost EVERYONE can come up with a list of 10, 20, or more friends, neighbors and relatives (parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, children, grandchildren, co-workers, classmates, etc.) if they really care for lost souls and put forth some serious thought. Your first task is to introduce your congregation to the newsletters and the Muscle And A Shovel book. Let the members see and read the newsletters and Michael Shank's book so they will know what they will be sharing with their friends.
After your members know what material they will be sharing, the first step will be the distribution of the newsletters. Select six of your favorite newsletters from the 25 available at this website and either mail or hand deliver them to your prospects. Let them know that you are looking to use these newsletters in a community outreach program and you are asking them to help you and your church evaluate the newsletters for quality of content and appeal.
For those who accept your invitation to participate in this program and read the newsletters, here are some sample questions you can ask. "What are your overall thoughts about the newsletters?" "Did you have any favorite newsletters or articles?" "Do you think people will benefit and enjoy receiving these newsletters?" The questions and answers are not our main objective in the first phase of the program. We are looking for people who love God and with whom we can begin to talk religion in a friendly, non-threatening way. Asking others to participate in this program starts that conversation!
Once the recipients have shared their thoughts about the newsletters you will then move to the second part of this two phase program. Thank your friends and then ask if they would be so kind as to help with just one other small task? Ask if they would mind reading a very popular, best selling, faith based, life changing book? Tell them you are interested in some independent thought and review of the book, Muscle And A Shovel. Tell them that, for their help with this book evaluation, they will be eligible to keep the book and share it with THEIR friends and loved ones, if they choose to. Or they can return it so that it may be shared with others in the outreach program.
Now isn't this easy! Just ask some friends to read some newsletters and a book, have a little salvation dialogue, and a fair number of these individuals will gladly choose to obey the gospel. It's a lot of fun and very effective!
You will find that some people who participate in reading the newsletters won't be interested in reading a book. That's not all bad. Just the dialogue you have started with the newsletters can open other doors to share the gospel. Focus Press and World Video Bible School have exceptionally good Bible study videos and material that you can offer to those who don't want to read a book (see FocusPress.org and WVBS.org). You can also invite them to come to church services with you. The bottom line is that you are now engaging acquaintances in religious conversion that, otherwise, you probably would not have done with almost any of them in your lifetime! Good for you! Better for them!
The Muscle And A Shovel book has aided in the baptisms of tens of thousands of dear souls! Sometimes people gain enough information about what they need to do to obey the gospel by just reading this book. Go to MichaelShankMinistries.com for more information regarding this amazing book. Other individuals who read this book will need to have questions answered with some additional Bible study. In either case, this book will be a very valuable tool to bring the soul-saving gospel to hundreds of people in your area!
What now follows is BONUS material. You may find some of it useful.
One of the biggest barriers for people lost to denominational error is the false teachings which they have been exposed to. The Bible expressly warns of false teachings and teachers! How can we break through this barrier?
Here is a simple 4 question test that you may give to people who are STUCK in denominational error. It sometimes helps to shake their confidence in the false teachings they have been exposed to.
1. What was the forbidden fruit Adam and Eve ate in the Garden of Eden that caused them to get kicked out?
A. Apple
B. Pear
C. Orange
D. Only God knows
2. Who arrived at the manger first to see baby Jesus?
A. The shepherds
B. The wise men
C. They both arrived at the same time
D. The wise men never made it to the manger in time to see Jesus when He was there
3. How many wise men came to see Jesus and give him gifts?
A. 3
B. 4
C. 5
D. No one knows
4. What day of the year was Jesus born?
A. November 25th
B. December 25th
C. January 25th
D. One person's guess is as good as another's
Now, next to each one of the 4 answers you chose above, please show how confident you are with your answers by writing in percentage the degree of confidence you have in your answer. For example, if you think that the answer for number one is an orange and you are 75% certain, place "75%" next to the word "orange." Etc. Do this for all four questions!
I assume you know that the Bible doesn't name the forbidden fruit, that the wise men didn't see Jesus until he was in a house (Matthew 2:11) much later, that the Bible mentions the wise men brought 3 gifts, but never mentions how many wise men there were and no one really knows the actual day Jesus was born. If the people to whom you give this test are pretty confident about their answers (an apple, 3 wise men visiting Jesus on December 25th in the manger), you may be well on the way to shake their confidence in their own salvation once they understand that what they were also taught about salvation is at variance to the plan of salvation that was taught by Jesus, just as what they were taught about the Garden of Eden and baby Jesus was incorrect.
Another thing we can do to diminish people's attachment to denominational error is to demonstrate how easy it was for religious error to creep into the Christian faith over the last 20 centuries. Most people you talk to will be familiar with the party game called Gossip or Telephone. It's played when you have everyone lineup side by side in a row and the first person is shown a short phrase, which he or she whispers to the second person, who whispers it to the third, etc., until everyone has been whispered to. The last person then states what he or she thinks the phrase is. The fun of this game is to listen to what the last person says! It is always NOTHING even close to the original phrase. As each person hears what is whispered, he generally will miss hear or miss repeat it. Within a few minutes a simple phrase is totally screwed up. If this can happen within a few minutes, think what can and has happened over 2,000 years to the Christian faith! That's NO surprise because Jesus and the Bible said that Satan and false teachers would attempt to change the teachings of Jesus and God's inspired writers! For example, the very popular Sinner's Prayer salvation formula is something that has evolved basically over the last 100 years, well after Jesus and biblical writers taught that salvation comes from obeying the gospel (Google: History and Origin of "Sinner's Prayer" salvation).
When it comes to downloading the newsletters, I find that black print on colored paper works very well visually. I think that black print on white paper is too plain and less appealing, and color print on expensive paper can make this program very costly. In the nearly 30 years that I have been doing newsletter evangelism, this less expensive approach has worked very well for me. Of course, you are not me and you have all three options!
I hope you will think to share this program with other evangelism minded friends and acquaintances! Where others spend eternity will depend on what we do or don't do to try to seek and save lost souls! May this program richly bless you and may God bless you richly!
Glenn E. Davis
Telephone: 501-230-8279