Winning Ways at Ebe
Winning Ways is at the heart of our evangelism strategy and is about natural, lifestyle evangelism, where in small groups, we support and encourage each other to build relationships with our non-Christian family and friends. It’s about showing the love of Jesus to our family and friends, praying effectively and consistently for them and introducing them to Jesus. Winning Ways is a 7 session equipping course done in homegroups or student groups and then the long-term support and encouragement starts.

At Ebe, we regularly have Winning Ways Social Events, Guest Services, Alpha Courses, etc. as part of this vision. Below is some more detail to the vision or visit the Winning Ways Website. “Winning Ways” is actually just a part of a wider strategic vision to reach the Bristol region for Jesus, called 'Celebrate'. This is a simple introduction to that vision.

Evangelism for the Rest of Us
After he rose from the grave, Jesus trusted his church with a mission to ‘make disciples of all peoples’. 2,000 years later the mission remains the same.

Many of us, however, find reaching out to others with the good news of Jesus Christ - the core purpose of the church - difficult and challenging. It’s hard to make it a natural part of our everyday life. We know that we’re supposed to share our faith with those around us. We may even know that the vast majority of people come to faith out of relationship with a Christian. But it often doesn’t work for us.

Celebrate is evangelism for the rest of us. It’s a long term process that seeks to release significant growth to our churches by mobilising and equipping believers in natural, lifestyle evangelism. Celebrate is based on Biblical principles, recognising that a local expression of the body of Christ is the most effective agent for evangelism, and that evangelism itself is a process.

It also affirms that evangelism and church growth cannot be simply about clever methods and programmes. It has to be about people.

God has given the church ministries and gifts to enable believers to succeed. Evangelism cannot be simply taught - it must also be caught.

Putting It into Practice
Because Celebrate is a long term process and based around people rather than programmes it will adapt itself to different church situations in different ways.

There are a number of key elements, though, that are essential for success. Two of these are :

Winning Ways
A 7 session equipping course that provides on the job training and teaching for effective outreach, all within the context of ongoing small groups. The main sessions cover :

3’s a Crowd
A long term initiative for loving and reaching out to three non-believing friends, combined with a programme of effective and consistent prayer.

Joined Up Evangelism
Teaching, training and resources can only ever take us so far. There needs to be a thought through strategy for individual churches that facilitates the three stages of evangelism - Cultivation (appealing to the heart by developing relationships), Sowing (appealing to the mind by communicating revelation) and Reaping (appealing to the will expecting response).

Celebrate brings joined up thinking to evangelism by putting together a process that serves outreach at every level - at the small group level, the church congregation level and the city-wide level. It seeks to create an atmosphere in which everyday believers can succeed in lifestyle evangelism; it helps those with evangelistic gifts find a place of effectiveness in the local church; and it enables leaders to engage in a long-term, strategic process for significant, sustained church growth.