Reach Out Evangelism is about reaching out. However, before we can reach out we have to reach in and reach down. Before we can be an inviting church that attracts and keeps visitors, we have to know who we are, what we stand for, what we have to offer. It arises from the deepest place of our sense of what is sacred, of what it means to live religiously. Evangelism is not a membership program, a set of activities or even a set of skills.
Evangelism has very little to do with deciding to grow.
At its core, evangelism is the natural outgrowth of our sense of religious community. That is why deciding to grow, ironically, has little to do with growth. This is why churches that do grow often have no particular membership program. What growing churches do have is a sense of their mission and an enthusiasm that is palpable and contagious. Evangelism is the natural result of a deep belief that we Unitarian Universalists have something important and precious to offer.