George T. Burris has been pastor of the Historic St. James Baptist Church in Madisonville, LA since January 1997. He’s also a long-time member of my Advanced Coaching Network.
Pastor George partnered with me on a co-authorship opportunity for the book UNSHAKABLE: STANDING STRONG WHEN THINGS GO WRONG. This is a proven book that I wrote specifically for first-time guests, to provide encouragement, spiritual next steps and biblical grounding for those under tension, in trouble or in transition.
George’s version of Unshakable, which he distributed at his church, featured his photo, church logo, bio and a foreword in the beginning of the book, written by George himself.
Here is George’s story on how he used his custom version of the book to expand his small groups ministry, energize his evangelism system and bring his congregation closer together.
One of the areas where Unshakable has had the biggest impact is with small groups – and actually getting them off the ground.
“We’re a traditional Baptist church,” says Pastor George. “I preach in full robe regalia. We have a very traditional Sunday School class. The concept of small groups was foreign to everyone, and they were very resistant to meeting during the week.”
Historic St. James had two women’s groups and one men’s group meeting on Wednesday nights. But, according to George, they were just “winging it.” Inspired by John Wesley (another teaching to come out of coaching) and his focus on small groups, Pastor George introduced the Unshakable book to his groups to give them an actual curriculum to follow together.
Since then, the groups are “picking up momentum” and the new structure is improving group attendance. “They’re already asking me, ‘what’s the next book going to be?’” says George.
For now, however, the Wednesday night groups are still discussing Unshakable, so the content of the book has filled weeks of group meetings.
An Unexpected Connection: Prison Outreach
One of the most surprising areas of influence for the book was at a women’s Bible study group at the local St. Tammany Parish Jail. George says a minister affiliated with their church was volunteering there, leading a Bible study on Tuesday nights with a group of female inmates. She had exhausted all her resources when she reached out to George; she wasn’t sure what to teach next. So George supplied her with a box of Unshakable books.
The response was tremendous, and the group leader was able to extend the book discussion for over 30 weeks.
The most amazing part since this outreach: Historic St. James has welcomed first-time guests from the jail (who had been released), and the church continues to follow up with them to encourage their ongoing attendance.
Equipping People for Life’s Changes
What has struck Pastor George the most is how much Unshakable has become a personal evangelism tool for his congregation.
“We’re still working on becoming personal evangelists as a church body,” he says. “This has helped us, and people have shared with me how the book has been a blessing to them. They’ve even bought copies to send to family members in other cities.”
In this way, the book has helped them fulfill their church’s mission to “Equip People for Life’s Challenges.”
“If a question comes up on any number of topics – death, illness, marriage – they can refer to a specific chapter in the book,” says George. “It has really helped to equip our people for outreach.”
He continues, “The book has been a great investment. More than anything it’s provided real-life answers and specific instruction that makes it a lot easier to teach and bring everyone together.”
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To learn more about becoming a co-author with me for Unshakable, email us at: info at ChurchLeaderInsights.com
Your partner in ministry,
Nelson
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