Today I got together with some guys in my old youth network. I haven’t been a part of that gang for about a year and it was really nice to start the re-connecting process.
For the first time since I’ve been here I really felt like I got something out of going today. I have been a little discouraged in general and even though I didn’t really have time to go all the way down there, I made time to get encouraged. So I went a little discouraged and left feeling OK about myself and my ministry.
Quick sidenote: It’s one thing to teach students "when you feel the most discouraged it’s because you are really close to a major break through and Satan is attacking you with discouragement" but it’s another really hard thing to live. Pressing on towards the goal sometimes sucks.
Today we talked about outreach. It’s one of those words that means a lot of things to a lot of people. I’ve seen churches call their Christian schools "an outreach" since there are people who aren’t Christians in the school. I’ve seen churches call events "outreaches" that were really events where one ministry of the church was reaching out to another. I’ve been to evangelistic "outreaches" where there was an event and a gospel presentation. I’ve been to churches that call "outreach" serving th community or feeding the homeless. But what is "Outreach?"
I would define it like this, "Creating a place in a relationship for
intentionally sharing God’s good news." Eh? How is that not all of
those things? Well, first off… I think "outreach" and "outreach
event" are two different things today. I’ve had many people tell me
that they are reaching out to their friends because they are inviting
them to an event where the gospel is shared. That’s "something" but I
don’t think they’ve really done any outreach until they’ve created some
space in that relationship for a spiritual conversation about the event
or about what was said.
Some would argue for something to be labeled "an outreach" you have to present the gospel. At today’s meeting there were some great examples of what not to do at an outreach event. One guy talked about a great battle of the bands that was ruined by an ill-timed "adult’ getting up to share the gospel. Did you hear the buzzer there? Yeah… that was people checking out because they smelled an ulterior motive. I would say that the important part of a successful outreach isn’t that someone got up to share how one might be saved. That is important, but it isn’t the most important thing that can happen as the result of an outreach, is it? The really important part is that the "lost person" gets a chance to start encountering some truth in their lives and God starts to interact with them. It’s God who draws men to Himself, not a man/woman who "saves" someone. So, even more important to a good outreach event is "Did I create a need for a lost person to talk to someone who isn’t lost?"
Overall, what I walked away from today was this overwhelming reality that what I am experiencing is happening all over in our area. Ministry leaders are recognizing that they old ways that we are good at and comfortable with reaching out to people with Jesus’ message simply are ineffective in today’s culture. So we can work harder, make it look better, spend more money on it, but the bottom line is that the method we’ve been using/tweaking/perfecting just does not work like it used to.
Does that mean that the gospel is no longer effective? Um, no. All it means is that we’re experiencing a shift in how God’s message is going to be received. God’s message hasn’t changed in a couple of millenia so I think we’re alright there… but we all have to buckle down and figure out some new strategies.
Leave a Reply