Okay … I’m going to do something that may prove deeply stupid. It won’t be the first time, but sometimes you just got to try things. I’m going to offer a series of examples of missional efforts by an attractional church using my own congregation as illustrations.
Now, I’m not going to tell you about the ugly side of my church. I mean, like every church with a lampstand from God, we have problems. And it would be wrong to talk about most of them here. Hence, this won’t be balanced. And it wont’ be fair.
Just know this: we’re not perfect, we don’t have it all together, and we are not the model church by any means. We do some things well; some not so well. I’m going to share the good parts and hide the bad parts. It’s just the nature of a public blog that I can be honest but I can’t be completely honest.
And the only reason I use my church to offer examples is, well, I don’t know much about any other church. I’m a one-church specialist, being an elder and all. I do not believe that the Holy Spirit only blows in Tuscaloosa. There are other churches where God is doing great things. Please tell your own stories in the comments. I might even ask some of you to expand on your stories for a guest post.
I personally have precious little to do with any of these ministries. I may be bragging on friend or family, but I’m not bragging on myself. I just happen to have a position that gives me a good view of the Spirit’s work in my congregation.
Finally, I’ll not mention many names, because the names won’t mean much to those outside the congregation. But I will mention a few — with no disrespect intended for those not mentioned. I just don’t have time to compile a list of everyone involved in every project, nor is that the purpose of these posts. In fact, one of the beauties of the way we operate is that the ministries have the freedom to operate with minimal oversight from the elders — meaning we don’t get in the way (much), but neither are we aware of everyone who is serving in that ministry.
Angel Tree Ministry
Following the April 27, 2011 tornado, we used tornado relief funds received from donors both in church and from across the country to buy housewares, furniture, and appliances for about 60 families who lost everything in the storm.
We are now combining that ministry with our annual “Angel Tree” ministry to provide Christmas trees for those families and Christmas presents for over 80 children in those families.
Those involved in the ministry have found working with these families, largely from the Alberta City area, delightful. Most of these families are headed by a wage earner, but most lost work following the tornado. Some couldn’t work because their cars were destroyed. Some lost their jobs because their employers’ businesses were destroyed. Some lost a few weeks’ pay while their employers recovered. All had to move.
The problem many face is the difficulty of catching up. When you’re not making much more than minimum wage, there’s barely enough money to live and not nearly enough to replace a lifetime of possessions. And so many of these families are behind on utilities and other necessities just because they can’t catch back up.
Olus Mitchell has headed this program and done a marvelous job of being both generous and prudent — helping pay for utilities and replacing destroyed furnishings as needed. In fact, one of the ministry’s biggest problems is the refusal of so many families to ask for what they really need. As a result, our members visit in their homes to look to be sure they actually have enough beds, essential appliances, and such.
Our volunteers have been visiting to follow up, and they sometimes find that very small things that were earlier overlooked can make a huge difference — a frying pan, a vacuum cleaner, a box of diapers — things that many of our members buy with little thought of the cost can make a dramatic difference to someone living on the edge of poverty.
The volunteers realized that these families lost all their Christmas decorations in the storm, and many have small children. And so we’ll be providing them with a durable Christmas tree out of tornado relief funds. And one of our children’s classes is making an ornament for each family — a very nice ornament — to hang on the tree, with a note from the University Church of Christ. It’s not that a Christmas tree is a necessity, but that it’s a reminder of Jesus — and a touch of nomalcy for people who haven’t seen normal in a long time.
And as we’ve done for many years, families will be buying Christmas presents for the children. The difference this year is that the families buying the presents won’t give the presents to a committee to distribute. Rather, we’re asking the families doing the buying to deliver the presents personally — family by family (it used to be child by child). And this year, the families will be people we know because of the tornado relief effort.
Our volunteers have put in countless hours to meet with each family and put together a Christmas list. Communication has been hard because so many families have cell phones with limited minutes. You often can’t call, and so you have to drive to their houses to talk in person or else leave a note on the doors. But the volunteers have been persistent. They don’t want to let a family be left out just because they couldn’t afford enough cell phone minutes to tell us what they need.
Before we made a single announcement to the church as a whole, half the families were taken — because so many volunteers insisted on buying presents for a family they’d come to know from previous visits.
Already we’re having a number of families visit our church, not because it’s required, but because there’s something about generosity that’s appealing. (Dare I say “attractive”?)
I was in a class taught by my fellow elder Doug Key. Doug asked, “Why did it take a tornado for us to see these needs?”
And, it’s true; these kinds of needs have been invisible to us. While many of these families would not have needed help but for the tornado, there are many other families just scraping by, unable to cope with any interruption in their work, unable to catch up after an employer closes. Sometimes it just takes a little help to make all the difference.
Reflection
So is this “attractional” or “missional”? Well, it’s attractive. And it’s missional. But the goal of the ministry isn’t to grow the church by inviting people to hear our great preacher (we’re between preachers, anyway). Rather, we’re trying to be faithful to the gospel. The goal is to do the right thing.
But because we’re meeting and talking to these families and buying toys for their children. we’re quickly learning to love them. And because we love them, we do our best to share Jesus somehow or other. Most will do this by inviting them to church, and we have a mixed race congregation. Some have visited, and I pray more will.
(And because members see the love of Jesus in their fellow members, they invite friends to church.)
We pray there will be other, less direct benefits — such as families learning that Jesus changes people to be generous and kind. We hope the families see Jesus in us, and even if they don’t join our congregation, they find Jesus. He doesn’t just live in our church.
If you touch your community in hundreds of ways for Jesus, the perception of Jesus and his church will change. The result may be more converts for another congregation, but the goal isn’t congregational growth so much as Kingdom growth.
You don’t measure the fruit of selfless service only in baptisms. Yes, you count and celebrate baptisms! But you also celebrate good works performed in the name of Jesus, prayers of thanks offered by families and children, and one of many steps toward a city transformed by the love of Jesus.
Only God will know the full impact of this ministry, but it is certainly Kingdom work. It’s outside the building. It’s bringing the love of Jesus where it’s needed. It’s forming relationships.
And it’s being done by an attractional church. Yep, we still invite friends to come to church or small group — and we need to do a lot more of it.
Two thoughts… One…ya think the HS blows in Baton Rouge too ?? Nah….well….
This effort by your church…I’m guessing it made a huge impact in your community…. I wonder if it made a huge impact in the people of your church who participated… My guess is that this “worship” of loving your neighbor as yourself had more impact than most “regular” church services… Made me wonder this morning if “church” was ever meant to have walls…. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you, I have been realizing that ‘community’ was missing in our congregation. We have been struggling to survive and I have been wanting to reach out with God’s love in a meaningful way. I know God will bless any congregation when it stops just looking internally and sending the love of God to our neighbors.
Mat 18:6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and [that] he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
Jay, what should be the mission of the church, if and when we wittness child abuse within the congregation, or in the community, outside the congregation ? what program does your church have to confront this.?
Jay:
I read this:
“But the goal of the ministry isn’t to grow the church by inviting people to hear our great preacher (we’re between preachers, anyway). Rather, we’re trying to be faithful to the gospel. The goal is to do the right thing.
But because we’re meeting and talking to these families and buying toys for their children. we’re quickly learning to love them. And because we love them, we do our best to share Jesus somehow or other. Most will do this by inviting them to church, and we have a mixed race congregation. Some have visited, and I pray more will.”
I hear good in the actions of the University congregation, Jay. And that is encouraging. Always will be.
But “faithful to the Gospel” excludes inviting people to hear the Word of God read, sung and preached? That is where I think, at times, you are trying to use hyperbole to “wake up” folks. Or if not hyperbole in your mind, then I see a TREMENDOUS disconnect just from comparing your words to Acts 6:1-7. for instance. Then we can add in the numerous times Jesus urged eyes heavenward when people seemed “stuck” in a this-world perspective.
That is what baffles me about your posts such as this one. I can tell you are a man who cares about others and helps. However, at times you seem to me to be heading for the swamp that was the “Social Gospel Movement” of years past, with all of its clear failures.
Like the University congregation I am glad to share that the Katy congregation, as another example, is involved deeply in caring for others — feeding them; helping with utility bills; counseling; teaching English. And it indeed does make a difference when people see selflessness. Hopefully, they will smell the “aroma of Christ”….
In Christ,
Bruce Morton
Katy, Texas
Bruce,
There are ways to invite one to become a Christian without “inviting people to hear our great preacher.”
Quentin wrote,
There are many ways community gets built in a church, but the best, most effective, and most life-changing way is through service side by side with brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s obvious that our members who’ve been on mission trips together — to do mission rather than chaperone — form intense bonds that last for years afterwards. I’ve seen bonds so strong that team members will confront and rebuke each other as necessary without fear of losing a friend — and that is the kind of bonding we need.
Laymond asked,
We have a formal child abuse policy.
We require those who work with children to undergo background checks.
New members must wait 6 months before working with children (with certain exceptions).
Adults may not be alone with children.
Volunteers must attend training on recognizing and reporting suspected child abuse.
The leadership is publicly committed to honoring the law requiring that even suspected abuse be reported. We had a congregational meeting where the elders presented our policies and explained that the rules would be strictly enforced.
Doors to rooms with children have glass panels.
This list goes on. We take the potential for child abuse very seriously.
Laymond also asked,
The child’s safety is paramount. Obedience to state law requiring reporting is not optional. The church (not just the leadership — the whole congregation) must be involved as best we can to help those involved recover.
The church heals, but first it protects.
Finally, cover ups are anathema. Suspected crimes are reported to the authorities, and then we work with the authorities in any investigation, fully cooperating to make certain the truth is revealed. We don’t want the innocent falsely accused but neither do we want the guilty to avoid responsibility.
False accusations sometimes occur. We can’t be naive in pretending that all accusations are true or that none are true. Rather, with the civil authorities, we investigate as carefully and quickly as we can.
And if someone is guilty of taking advantage of a child, we try our best to forgive him. But we don’t let him walk the halls of the preschool wing. Forgiveness does not change the character or temptations of the person forgiven. Forgiveness does not allow us to enable future crimes.
The worse times get the more folks seek God so the more opportunities to tell them about our God.
The problem is not that there are not folks eager to listen, its that we don’t take it to them.
How many times have we heard if they want to obey the gospel, they are welcome to attend our services anytime.
That is so true and the good part is there are more places available for them in the pews each year than the year before.
The gospel was always meant to be scattered, spread out, cast upon the water, taken to um, never meant to be sitting still waiting.
And for this reason, i think, the church is rather likened to a small fishing boat than to Queen Mary 2
Alexander
Jay:
I want you to know that I do agree that “inviting people to hear our preacher” (i.e. hearing the Word preached in our church buildings) is not the only way to spread the Word.
In Christ,
Bruce Morton
Katy, Texas
In all of the important discussion about spreading the Word beyond (institutional) meeting places, I hope we also do not forget just how important were places like the “lecture hall of Tyrannus” (Acts 19:9).
One brother who is about the task of quietly spreading the Word daily highlighted to me this morning that part of the challenge comes in “building bridges” in an America where distance is growing between people — both socially and religiously. He reminded me that our task is bigger than merely sharing the Word. We must also help people to actually communicate more to others.
This article by John Studebaker, “Building Bridges for the Gospel” has some good stuff in it. So, sharing:
http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/bridgbld.html
In Christ,
Bruce Morton
Katy, Texas