Four keys to continuing your church’s momentum for outreach
In 1844 London, England was in the midst of the Industrial Revolution. Young men were pouring into the city for the 12-hour-a day, six-day-a-week jobs that were available. These young men slept packed into rooms over their company’s shop. The streets outside the shops were filled with all sorts of evil and debauchery. Recognizing the plight of these young men, George Williams founded an organization for the primary purpose of providing Bible study and prayer as a substitute for life on the streets. The organization took hold and began to spread. In the latter part of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries, lay evangelist Dwight L. Moody and John Mott created a major missionary movement under this group. This organization was instrumental in the founding of the Gideon’s, a group that has placed millions of Bibles in people’s hands. This organization is the Young Men’s Christian Association, or YMCA.
Today, if you asked the average person on the street what the YMCA is, the answer overwhelmingly would be a recreation center or a daycare. Somewhere along the way, the YMCA lost sight of its primary purpose. What once was its form has now become its function. Recently, a young man in Marietta, Georgia had his membership revoked because he was sharing his faith on the YMCA’s premises. After some negative press coverage, he was reinstated.
Pressure to lose sight of the goal
There are constant pressures on organizations to move away from their original purpose and intent. The church is not immune from such pressures. Societal changes, turnover in church membership, and even the weariness of “well-doing” are just some of the factors that may move a church away from its purpose. One of the teaching points in The Mission Society’s Global Outreach Weekend is that missions should be a priority and not just a program of the church. Churches that have applied the six essential strategies presented in that weekend have seen a marked increase in excitement, involvement, and the scope of their outreach. The question is: how does a church maintain this level of engagement and keep missions positioned as a priority? I want to suggest four ways of keeping missions alive in your church.
1. Keep missions personal
It is hard to get people excited about generalities. There is a world of difference in the slogan Have you driven a Ford lately? and Have you driven a vehicle lately? Providing a congregation opportunity for real contact with missionaries, national workers, and missions personnel brings a level of personalization that creates a dynamic connection.
A missions leader in a local church was concerned about raising the excitement level for missions throughout her entire church. One of The Mission Society staff members asked about her recent trip to Africa. In recounting her experience, she began telling about a particular woman she met. The more she talked about this woman, the more the excitement built until she was bursting with enthusiasm. The staff member interrupted and told her that what she was feeling now is what was needed in her church. The way to achieve that enthusiasm is to be intentional in creating opportunities for the church congregation to get up close and personal with missions and missionaries. As Jan Gilbert, Global Outreach leader at St. Johns United Methodist Church in Aiken, South Carolina, says, “People meeting people makes all the difference in the world!”
2. Keep missions forefront
We have all heard the axiom: out of sight, out of mind. The Rev. Brenda Westmorland, associate pastor at Norcross First United Methodist Church in Norcross, Georgia, rightly says, “We realize that mission doesn’t come naturally to many or most. Additionally, people are busy. We keep mission before the congregation, reminding them of God’s instruction for Christians to reach out.” Brenda says one of the ways Norcross does this is with “frequent personal testimony in worship by members who are involved in mission.”
Bob Sloan, director of missions at Asbury United Methodist Church in Madison, Alabama, says, “We work at casting a vision for missions through quarterly ‘Missions Emphasis Sundays’ and through the annual Global Impact Celebration. The sermons on those Sundays are keyed to a particular element of the vision for missions. The monthly church newsletter also focuses on that aspect of the vision and is timed to arrive in homes the week preceding the Mission Emphasis Sunday.”
Brenda and Bob recognize that the way to keep their congregations engaged is by keeping missions before the people in a variety of ways.
3. Keep missions strategic
A sign over a desk in an office reads, “A good manager never confuses activity with accomplishment.” Although activity is necessary, it has little value if it doesn’t produce the desired outcome. We in the church are good at activity, but accomplishment may be another matter. It is the promise of accomplishment that gets people’s attention, keeps their attention, and produces a desire to invest themselves. Accomplishment demands that we be strategic. Being strategic means discerning what God is calling us to, developing a plan to make that happen, and the carrying out the plan. The “achievement” is God’s doing, but in church after church, we see how God honors the strategic, intentional work of His people.
4. Keep missions urgent
Unfinished has repeatedly called attention to the 1.8 billion people in the world who have little or no access to the Gospel. Additionally, millions have access but have not heard the Gospel clearly enough to make an informed decision. Without Christ, these people live without hope. There is a poem that reads in part, “They don’t have time to wait/Please don’t hesitate/ The sands of time are surely slipping by.” There should be an urgency about proclaiming the Good News of Jesus to this generation, and that urgency should be conveyed regularly in the local church.
Almost every weekend, The Mission Society’s church ministry team members are in local churches presenting a Global Outreach Seminar. They find that when a congregation’s members understand the biblical foundation for mission, the state of global outreach today, and how they can be on mission with God, they are ready to make missions a priority in their personal lives and in the life of their church. Try the four actions described above, and expect God to continue to accomplish
great things through your church.
Stan Self is The Mission Society’s director of Church Ministry.
