Associate Pastor, Bill Towne

Question #1.  What principles and practices used by these churches have been most successful in attracting and evangelizing unchurched people? What are the primary reasons that unchurched people are attracted to your church?

Rolling Hills Community Church was founded in 1978 by five families in Clackamas County at that time when this was the most unchurched county in the nation.  The church has since grown to be one of the largest in the Northwest with nearly 3000 worshipers each weekend.  Rolling Hills is a safe place that people can come to investigate the claims of Christ.  They can understand what is being said and yet remain anonymous and feel safe.  “We also have really strong youth and children’s ministries, so many unchurched people come because of their kids,” explains Pastor Bill Towne.  “Also, our Senior Pastor, Dale Ebel, who does most of the speaking, is very transparent.  So when people come they don’t feel like they are being preached at.  They feel like there is a normal guy up there who has struggled and yet has found victories and peace in his life.  They can relate to him, he seems real and genuine.  Every weekend service we present the gospel.  So, we encourage people to bring their friends.  We try to work primarily through networks of relationships so the people we are reaching are people like us.  They know that it is a safe place to bring their unchurched friends."

Rolling Hills does bridge-in and bridge-out events.  Bridge-in events are events held at the church that are purely evangelistic where the leaders really encourage regular attenders to bring their friends.  They offer a lot of bridge-in events throughout the year, such as drama presentations, mother-daughter teas, or a garden tour.  Bridge-out events are where members try to go into the community.  “We encourage people with ideas and then connect them with others in our church body who have already done the type of event they want to do,” states Towne.  “One good example of a bridge-out event would be a block party.”

Rolling Hills is very intentional about communicating the purpose of every event.   They seek to match the outcome of each event with one of their five purposes.  Their logo is a tree and T.R.E.E.S. is an acrostic that spells out their purposes.  T stands for Teach the Word, R stands for Reach the world, E stands for Equip the believer, the second E stands for Exalt the Lord, and S is refers to Support each other.  Towne explains, “We are very intentional with our people about the purpose of each opportunity coming up.  For example, if the opportunity coming up is a ‘Reach the world’ event we will let our people know that they are not supposed to come unless they have an unchurched person with them.”

Question #2.  How do these churches welcome and follow-up unchurched visitors and new converts?

“Every week we welcome first time guests in the service and ask them to fill out a welcome card,” explains Towne.  “These cards are taken and those people receive a phone call that week welcoming them.  The caller will ask the guest if they are seriously looking for a church.  Are they visiting?  How did they find out about Rolling Hills?  Did a friend bring them?  Did they see us as they were driving by on the freeway?  What are they looking for in a church?  What did they enjoy at Rolling Hills?  What didn’t they enjoy?  Are they interested in any information from us?  And, if they are interested in a particular ministry, we let that ministry know and it follows-up with them.” 

For the last two years the church has tracked each visitor for a whole year.  The church would call a guest three months after their first visit and ask if they are still attending Rolling Hills, or if they have chosen some other church.  If the caller found that the guest was still in the process of selecting a church, the caller would ask if there were some way that they could help the visitor.  As soon as guests got plugged in at Rolling Hills, or another church, then Rolling Hills didn’t call them anymore.  But if they didn’t get plugged in, the church continued calling for a year.  “We wanted to see how we are doing with assimilating our first time guests into the body,” stated Towne.  “We found that about 25% of our in-town guests were assimilated into the church."

At each service when they give an invitation to receive Christ, instead of asking people to come forward for an “alter call” they have people respond by going to a station in the foyer after the service.  “We give them a packet of materials and ‘The New Believers Bible,’” explains Towne.  “We also invite them to an ongoing four-week class for new believers that meets weekends during one of the services.  We are not seeing the people who accept Christ this week join the class next week.  That would be the exception.  Perhaps 10% would take the next step immediately.  More of them will stick around the church and three months down the road they will connect with the New Horizon class or a New Beginnings six-week study in a small group or one-to-one discipleship.  We try to provide multiple opportunities for new Christians to grow.”

Question #3.  How do these churches provide an opportunity for new people to gain a sense of belonging?

Rolling Hills is very intentional about connecting worshippers in vital relationship through small group participation.  On a week when worship attendance is 2800 they will also have nearly 2700 participants in small groups.  They call these small groups Community Groups.  Their stated mission is “to connect people relationally in groups for the purpose of growing in Christlikeness, loving one another, and contributing to the work of the church, in order to glorify God together.”  They currently have nearly 100 Community Groups meeting throughout the Portland metro area.