Outreach expert to give pointers on faith sharing

Southwest Texas Conference leaders are to get faith-sharing pointers in June
from an evangelism expert.
The Rev. Martha Grace “Gay” Reese, author of Unbinding the Gospel: Real Life Evangelism, is to address the Southwest Texas Conference session in Corpus Christi June 8 as part of the Council on Ministries report.
She is to lead a smaller dialogue session later that afternoon.
“Gay is an exciting speaker and a real resource for helping us learn about faith sharing,” said Carol Loeb, Council on Ministries chair. “Her message could change the way we share the gospel
with the unchurched.”
Theme for the June 6-9 conference session is “Offering Christ to All: Sharing Our Faith Stories.”
A Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) pastor, Reese headed the Mainline Evangelism Project. That four-year research effort, funded by the Lilly Endowment, involved more than 1,000 interviews with people from 150 mainline congregations. Those interviews explored motivations behind effective evangelism efforts in mainline denominations.
Unbinding the Gospel reports the results of that research. Initially published in January by Chalice Press, the book quickly reached the Amazon. com best-seller list.
The first printing sold out in one month. Chalice Press did a second printing in February.
The book is divided into three parts:
> Evangelism in mainline denominations today—What is it? Why do it? How are churches doing?
> Examples of great churches sharing their faith.
> Practical suggestions about faith sharing.


“Martha Grace Reese has written an interactive, exciting work on evangelism,” said Yolanda Villa, executive pastor of congregational care at the UM Church of the Resurrection, Leawood, Kan. “It is practical, biblical, hospitable and answers rudimentary questions.”
Reese has been an attorney, pastor and judicatory executive. She has spent the past decade coaching pastors in spiritual leadership for congregational transformation as president of GraceNet Inc. in St. Louis.