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North Texas congregation sees gospel fruit from practice of holding one service per month outside its walls
Pastor Paul Faseler was driving to a staff meeting when he noticed workers setting up for a county fair. He knew they travel and work every Sunday in a new location, so he thought, “I bet they don’t ever get to worship.”
Faeseler rounded up some volunteers from The Well Baptist Church in Greenville and they headed to the fairgrounds on Sunday morning with 100 breakfast tacos for the workers. Rain was pouring down, but they waded in with raincoats and umbrellas to knock on doors of workers’ trailers.
About 20 workers accepted the invitation to come to a small worship service inside the fairgrounds, and nine of them prayed to receive Christ, Faseler said, adding, “We just wanted to bless them, but God decided to show up that day.”
An impromptu gathering at the local fairgrounds was not a far stretch for the members of The Well because they have been accustomed for years to using the fourth Sunday of each month as a service day outside the walls of their normal worship location.
The practice began out of necessity when the young church plant met at a community center and worked around a car show that was already booked for the fourth Sunday of every month. After a while, the car show moved on but the practice of going outside the walls held.
When they called Faseler as pastor four years ago, church members wanted to make sure he would be on board with the tradition. He thought it was a good fit with his missions and evangelism priorities.
The Well works with FISH, which is the Hunt County Shared Ministries food pantry and other services. Church members fill blessing bags for homeless people, packing tuna, granola bars, fruit snacks, pudding, and water along with a gospel tract.
“We put those together every month. The Salvation Army takes some, a partner church takes some, our members take some,” Faseler said. “I like to keep one in my car at all times.”
Church members have been trained in the Three Circles evangelism method—one time using white paper table cloths so everyone around the table could practice drawing the circles and telling the gospel story. Sometimes on fourth Sundays they practice door to door evangelism.
“We’re always amazed when we do door to door on Sundays how many people are home,” Faseler said, noting that one of the challenges in the community is that so many people have prayed a prayer of salvation at some point but are not walking with Christ.
Recently, during a sermon from the book of Acts, Faseler preached on Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, challenging people to trust God when He provides opportunities for gospel interaction. “We talked about how Philip just went with the question that was asked,” Faseler said.
In addition to the food pantry and door to door evangelism, The Well has partnered with a local pregnancy resource center in Greenville. The church also partners with three schools doing various projects such as landscaping or building bookshelves. They are prayer partners with the teachers at one school.
“We’ve got lots of people who probably would say they’ve never been on a mission trip, but they don’t know that we put them on mission trips every month.”
“We’ve got lots of people who probably would say they’ve never been on a mission trip, but they don’t know that we put them on mission trips every month,” Faseler said.
The Well has nearly a 100% volunteer rate in terms of how many members serve in some service capacity, the pastor said. “It really has empowered some folks and made them feel like a part of the body and having a purpose.”
One man who had worked a flat top grill at a restaurant for years told Faseler, “You want to cook breakfast tacos? I’m your man.” When such an emphasis is placed on service, more people are able to find where they fit.
With such an unconventional practice, the pastor points to the fruit as justification for the church’s off-site Sunday service once per month. “It takes some faith, and we have to talk it up a lot,” he said, adding that attendance is about 115 on worship Sundays but about 80 on service days.
“Some of it is just a choice of impact over numbers,” Faseler said.
The pastor knows attendance will be down when they do door to door evangelism because fewer people are comfortable with that task. “But I think to have 40 or 50 people doing door to door is worth it. We could have 120 at church, but this could go a lot further if we really teach people how to do this.”
Often in Scripture, including Abraham and Mary, for example, God calls people to leave their comfort zones, Faseler said.
“We’re almost creating a culture where this is church for them. They expect to serve. They expect to have conversations with people and maybe have to share the gospel or ask people how they can pray with them and then pray.
“We’re constantly pushing our people out of their comfort zones to where they don’t even know they’re out of their comfort zones anymore. They’re just living on mission.”
