Recently, I sat with a pastor whose church was receiving a presentation on visioning and looking into the future.  I met with the pastor, the church staff, the lay leadership team and the congregation.  It was a wonderful day of many questions and much creative thinking.  At one point, in our conversation with the staff,  we were talking about outreach and ministry, one of the staff shared about the many programs of ministry that the church was engaging; meaningful work of providing resources for “the least of these”—sharing God’s love through slushees or a cup of cool water on a hot soccer field, to tutoring children who are struggling to be successful in school, providing resources for families whose homes have been devastated by natural disaster, and giving personal hygiene items to the homeless, etc.  The pastor suddenly experienced a shift of perspective.   He began to share,  “This meaningful and exciting work that we do is very important and needed.  However, how often are we inviting people to help us with this work? Maybe, we are not opening our minds to the possibilities.  There are many people who would like to engage in meaningful and purposeful work, we need to invite them to help us do this work…then we can do even more.  The work that we do is important, and we should also be reaching out to those who would like to help us in this work.”  I appreciated this shift in perspective.  Often we complain that other’s do not connect with our churches.  We must think about to what we are inviting them to connect.  Are we inviting people to engage with the purpose and vision of our congregations?  Or are we inviting them to receive from us?  Both are good and needed invitations, but sometimes we aren’t thinking about all of the possibilities. 

What are some of the possibilities that you see in ministry and outreach?

Beth Kennett

March, 2011