Being Visible in Ministry

Christians respond to tragedy.  Some of the first to arrive after Katrina’s landing were Baptist relief trailers, and church volunteers are still there!  This is not unusual.  Last week, a string of tornados formed suddenly in southeast Virginia, touching down at the Suffolk hospital and the neighborhoods just north of it.  And some of the first responders were church volunteers.

The tornado touched down at 4:15pm, before the tornado warning watch box was posted.  Too many conflicting stories kept us – coincidentally – in a disaster relief planning meeting.  But first thing Tuesday morning, clad in yellow disaster relief t-shirts, a dozen volunteers from 3 churches decended on the area to start the damage assessment.  That assessment was to decide where cleanup help was needed.

Our denominational reputation preceeded us, and we were able to not only assess 500 homes, but also were “inside the perimeter” to be able to comfort and pray with victims looking at their damaged homes.  And while spectators were left hanging out at the perimeter, our crews were ministering where we could.  And it did not go unnoticed.  The efforts got front-page visibility . 

A week later, residents tell me the overwhelming majority of volunteers are either neighborhood residents or church groups.  In response, the news stations are reporting prayer meetings. 

My advice is to look for opportunities to minister first, and as you rush in, your sheer willingness, your lack of pretense and humility in service is the point, and will often be so unusual as to be newsworthy.

 

Is the church “fundamentally irrelevant”?

A man my age named Jim said in my presence that the church today is by and large, “fundamentally irrelevant” for folks who are still where you used to be.

When I asked for clarification on what he meant, he replied:

Do you thing that the world views what we do in church significant? If
they did they would come to participate. This is a part of the culture
today. The approaches that we have attempted to make ourselves relevant to
un-churched too often pushes people further away.

This is the core issue in revitalizing church in America. It is something we need to find a way to overcome.

From the inside, we think we know why church is important to us, and we assume that those who have chosen to stay away are simply mis-informed. But from their perspective, there is no value in them attending, and we are the ones wasting valuable Sunday morning recreation time and draining our bank accounts for that perceived wasted effort.

So as we begin to think like outsiders, perhaps we will begin to understand what they are looking for, and what we should be doing different about the practice (not theology) of our faith to help them feel comfortable coming back to church.

What do you think? What can we do to make the church became more relevant to others?

Reaching the De-churched

Mike attended the Dechurched workgroup on Apr 23.  Here are some of the ideas he picked up:

• Reach immigrants with ESL classes (English as a Second Language).  Helps build relationships.
• Add a casual service – one church has coffee and donuts and jeans at 8:30 before Sunday School.  They maintain the traditional service at 11
• Show movies – G-rated films, for families to come.  (get your CCLI license first!)
• “Movie and a Dinner” – a small group gathers at a house to watch a movie and then talk about it over dinner.  Movie at 5, supper at 7.
• Serve Our City – tell the community you intend to do community service projects and take reservations for small jobs around their house – simple yard work, small home repairs, etc.  Especially good for single parents and elderly.  Gets your name out as an involved community church
• Host summer day camp, using visiting mission teams.  Make contact with every child’s parent, asking them what their child is saying about what they learned and did.  Gives you a chance to start a witnessing conversation.
• Serve as story time readers in school library.  Can’t initiate a conversation about our faith, but can respond to a question
• Teacher Appreciation Day at the local school – breakfast, small gifts, etc.
• Back-to-school backpacks in low-income neighborhoods, pre-filled with school supplies and a Gospel tract
• Seminars at the church – Health issues:  enlist a doctor to speak
• Host a neighborhood discussion group in a home
• Host a neighborhood social with church people there to meet the neighbors – “front porch event”
• Have home study participants visit the neighbors 45 minutes prior to the discussion group / home event start time to invite them spur of the moment.  About the 3rd week in a row, they start to get the message and will start coming.