Twenty years ago, Vincent discovered witnessing method for members that worked better than bribery
Pastor Patrick Vincent was once so desperate for his parishioners to evangelize their unchurched friends that he resorted to paying them.
The episode is one he now remembers with some embarrassment, but his passion for evangelism led him to keep seeking new ideas. Twenty years ago, he finally discovered a successful method, one that in eight years has helped the Mount Calvary Adventist Church in Tampa, Florida grow its membership beyond building capacity: SWAT teams.
An acronym for Soul Winning Action Teams, the concept is an encompassing system of church member teams doing—within reason—anything they can to get people to church for the first time. While the church service is nourishing to existing members, most of its elements are designed for first-time attendees (from the carefully selected and trained greeter at the door to the sermon’s closing words).
Some leaders, both at the Adventist Church’s world headquarters and the administrative office for the Southern United States, have used the SWAT method, calling it a “natural way of accomplishing church growth.” While they agree that not every church needs Sabbath afternoon training for evangelism teams, leaders say a healthy church has a plan for witnessing in place.
Vincent, 60, who holds a doctorate in preaching and worship from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, is known to sometimes get so excited while preaching that he takes off his shoes. He says it increases blood flow, helping him to think better.
Several weeks ago he was elected executive secretary for Florida’s Southeastern Conference, the administrative headquarters for the region’s historically black churches. He granted a series of interviews with Adventist News Network on the need for SWAT teams and who they have in their crosshairs. (For even more details, catch his seminar)
Some excerpts:
Adventist News Network: Why do you send out SWAT teams?
Vincent: The primary focus of the gospel is that sinners be brought to Christ. The Bible gives instruction to go to the field. There is not one instruction for the lost to come to the church.
ANN: Many churches rely on a pastor to conduct evangelism. Why do you have these teams partnering with you?
Vincent: The basic reason people come in the front door and go out the back door is the masses of the membership have very little or nothing to do with people coming into the church. But if people are active in bringing people to the church, it represents their time, their blood, their sweat, their tears, their fasting, their sacrifice. As soon as they’re missed, they’re going to go look for them. But if you sit in church and someone joins and you have no investment in that person, if they’re missing, you’re not really motivated to do it.
ANN: Who are you trying to get your SWAT teams bringing to church?
Vincent: Our focus is non-Adventists from other churches. We don’t seek to build our church from people who are already Adventists. Our goal is not transfer growth. Our real focus is on conversion growth—people who are just doctrinally converted. Secondly, we focus on original conversion—people who have never accepted Jesus as their savior. We find that’s the largest number of people who are out there.
ANN: What percentage of your church members are on a SWAT team?
Vincent: It’s about 10 percent who are actively engaged.
ANN: Why do you have your SWAT team members contribute $5 for each week’s training?
Vincent: Well because of the fact that the Bible says wherever a man’s treasure is that’s where his heart is. If they put their treasure there it’s easier to get their hearts involved.
ANN: Each Sabbath there are at least a dozen people in church for the first time that your SWAT teams have worked hard to bring. What does it feel like to have that kind of responsibility in the pulpit?
Vincent: Well it is a Herculean responsibility because every Sabbath you get up to preach you get up with the consciousness that there are people here who are poised and ready to make decisions for Christ ... I tell my members, “Just get them to church, the rest is God’s and my responsibility each Sabbath.
ANN: Why do you always require a public appeal, even from your guest preachers? What’s significant about having converts come forward at the end of the service?
Vincent: Everybody that Jesus invited he invited publicly. I believe that the church at its birth was the church at its best. When Peter got up on the day of Pentecost he made a public appeal. All through the New Testament Jesus made public appeals. Even if you look at the sermonic presentations of Paul and the other apostles they always finished off with making an appeal. So when people come forward, we announce their name and I call somebody out of the congregation and publicly assign the member to the new convert right there. We have a list of things for the spiritual guardian to give oversight. ... I give a copy of that information to the person being assigned as well as to the new convert. We look forward to adding someone to the church every Sabbath we come together. It creates a feeling of excitement and expectancy in terms of the Lord adding to your church.
ANN: You’ve said you get about 60 invitations each year to teach the SWAT seminar around the country. Why do you only accept 12?
Vincent: I’ve got just a limited period of time. It’s difficult for me to grow my church and someone else’s at the same time.
ANN: Any tips for other pastors doing evangelism?
Vincent: They have to see their church as an evangelistic center. Every Sabbath that they come to do their pulpit work, they need to use the church not as merely the base of evangelism but as the place for evangelism.