BLESS: 5-month Evangelism Initiative on the Oregon Coast

By David Robinson, Lead Pastor, Cannon Beach Community Church

The people of Cannon Beach Community Church, a Covenant Church in Cannon Beach, Oregon, celebrate the BLESS way of evangelism every year with an annual 5-month emphasis upon BLESS, from January through May. BLESS is an evangelism initiative through “Make and Deepen Disciples” with the Evangelical Covenant Church, promoting BLESS one Sunday each year (March 17, 2019), encouraging Covenant pastors to preach BLESS as a 5-week sermon series.

David Robinson, Lead Pastor of Cannon Beach Community Church writes, “ we realized in our setting, that one Sunday a year or a 5-week series was not enough. We believe BLESS needed to be learned through our way of life, as experienced annually over a 5-month period.” At Cannon Beach Community Church, BLESS is a 5-month annual initiative.

On the first Sunday in January, the people fill out BLESS prayer cards, bringing them forward to present before the Lord. The BLESS prayer cards have become an annual faith commitment to Begin with prayer for unchurched friends, relatives, acquaintances, neighbors, and community members (FRANC list).  In February, everyone in the congregation commits to Listen with care to unchurched people, including people on their BLESS prayer list.  In March, the whole congregation commits to Eat together with unchurched people.  In April, the people step out to Serve with love, looking for creative ways to serve unchurched people by putting Christ’s love into action.  In May, Cannon Beach Community Church completes their annual BLESS campaign by encouraging the whole congregation to Share Christ’s story, sharing stories with friends, relatives, and neighbors of how God’s love transforms lives.

This 5-month BLESS initiative was launched for the first time in January 2018, and has already made a big impact upon the lives of hundreds of people. In 2018, Cannon Beach Community Church received 125 BLESS prayer cards with names of over 800 unchurched people. Every month, from January through May in 2018, the pastors preached on BLESS themes from the Gospel of John, emphasizing BLESS weekly through the five-month campaign.

In 2019, the BLESS way of relational evangelism once again was presented on the first Sunday in January, with 700 names of unchurched people written on BLESS prayer cards that Sunday. Every month, January through May in 2019, Cannon Beach Community Church encourages worship attenders to BLESS friends, relatives, acquaintances, neighbors, and community members with the love of God through Jesus Christ. Every week, during Sunday worship services, people are encouraged to pray for names on their BLESS prayer list.

“I first heard about BLESS as part of a Pacific Northwest Conference Evangelism Cohort back in 2016-‘17.” recalls Robinson, “Our cohort met monthly, September 2016 through May 2017, including 14 Lead Pastors from across the conference, gathering at River Ridge Covenant Church in Olympia, Washington to learn best ways of evangelism in the local church.” Of the many evangelistic patterns and practices presented in that 10-month Evangelism Cohort, “BLESS was the best practice for evangelism among unchurched people on the north Oregon coast,” asserts Robinson. “In a highly unchurched region such as the north Oregon coast, unchurched people are resistant to hear the good news of Jesus initially. But when followers of Jesus begin with prayer, listen with care, eat together, and serve with love, our friends, relatives, neighbors, and others tend to be much more receptive to hear and receive God’s great love story through our Lord Jesus Christ.”