Diane, our office manager (and great friend!), sent me a link to a blog this week. There were some great things to ponder in regards to a church’s outreach.
Our purpose statement at BCC is to glorify God by proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord and prepare His people to worship Him forever.
Let me ask you:
As you think over how you have spent your time since the new year, how much of that time has been spent in proclaiming versus preparing?
Consider this: Add up how much time have gone to worship service, Sunday School, care group, a BCC training class, a Bible study, giving counsel/getting counsel, making a meal for a fellow church family, etc. Now compare that to how much time you have spent serving the lost, communicating gospel truths to someone who doesn’t know Christ, being intentional to have the unsaved into your home, etc.
My guess is that our time in “preparing” far outdistances our time in “proclaiming”. That is not always a bad thing, but if this distance is constant, I wonder if we need to shift things a little in our personal lives as well as in the ministries we serve in at BCC.
The blog post Diane sent helps us see how to do this. The blogger quotes a book:
"The author argues for something he calls the Two-degree Rule. His question is essentially this: What would it look like to move the needle of the compass two degrees away from insiders and toward outsiders?
And, what would it look like to move the compass in each and every ministry? Even better, what would it look like to move the compass in the heart of each and every church member?
Here’s an example from the author’s book: Delivering meals.
Man are we good at delivering meals to people in our churches who just had a baby, are recovering from surgery or are grieving a loss. I mean, we are amazing at this. But, what if we delivered meals to our neighbors, co-workers or family members who don’t know Jesus? What if our church’s meals ministries moved the compass two degrees away from insiders and toward outsiders?
So, if you’re interested in becoming a church that is truly focused on reaching the lost, you probably don’t need an outreach department.
What you need is for your church, from the ground up, every person and every ministry to move just a little toward outsiders."
Full blog is here: https://www.breezechms.com/blog/2-ideas-to-move-your-church-toward-outreach/
BCC’s outreach ministry doesn’t have a committee and doesn’t do a lot of big events. Why? We want to help each ministry move two degrees—from meal sharing to youth ministry to care groups. Let me know if you want to be a part of the Two Degree Movement!
Pastor Ben
