Finding a Target Audience

By now you will have discovered that the evangelism strategy we are following week to week will take longer than one quarter to achieve. For instance, we would not expect that the local evangelistic training opportunities mentioned in lesson three will be discovered, planned, and attended in just one week. However, while you are considering training and where your ministry will fit into your church’s overall plans, it is important that you consider your target audience.

The following points are worth considering:

1. In consultation with your pastor, elders, and evangelism leaders, decide upon your witnessing and evangelism programs and target audiences. Considering your target audience will help you focus on all aspects of the process. For instance, with a children’s program, it will be better to advertise in schools and in neighborhoods that contain young families. Other target audiences may be the retired, the unemployed, students, and so on.
2. Focusing on a target audience will help you choose the best personnel, location, time, and follow-up strategies. It will also help in effective evaluation at the conclusion of your program, as well as providing you with a specific prayer focus.
3. You may not have to look further than your church to select a target group. Consider people who attend church but are not baptized or the church’s unbaptized young people or people who regularly attend special church or church-school programs.

Discussion Questions:

   “One truth received into the heart will make room for still another truth.”—Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, p. 449. In what sequence should the truths we hold be presented in order to be most effective in our outreach? Why should Christ’s substitutionary death always be at the forefront of all that we teach?  

   “Christ drew the hearts of His hearers to Him by the manifestation of His love, and then, little by little, as they were able to bear it, He unfolded to them the great truths of the kingdom. We also must learn to adapt our labors to the condition of the people—to meet men where they are.”—Ellen G. White, Evangelism, p. 57. How should love for those to whom we are speaking to about God’s Word temper the way we present Bible truth, especially points of doctrine that might challenge a person’s existing beliefs or do we need to?

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