It has been reminisced that the church needs something today like the bus ministry of the 70s and 80s to put us into the community. Agreed that we don’t necessarily need church buses to get us there, but it was one of the more powerful tools of helping our members have an organized direction for outreach. My family benefited greatly from this particular ministry. Mary learned to be a classroom teacher by teaching on the bus. My three kids rode with their mom on the bus Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights to sit with the children. They began when they were in first, second, and third grades. Their eyes were opened to societal plight. As adults they continue to walk from what they saw as extreme need from the early bus days.
The church now has another ministry arising. It is slightly different in method; but not in heart. The difference is the people come here instead of us going there. The method is the Food Pantry. For any of our members not involved, they may not be able to imagine the great need of our community. The Food Pantry is so special we had to move to two times per week being available. The volume of demand is great…..and sad. I encourage you that of all the benefit from the tremendous work we found in the bus work may be partially matched by the tremendous need of the hungry in our communities.
I close with a question: What is it you experience in your area which is proving valuable as a well-organized method of outreach?
7 comments:
I worked in the bus ministry at Millington with Howard Howell for four years and that was an amazing experience. You know, they just stopped the bus ministry in the last year or so and were still busing in over 100 per week as of 2006.
Small group ministries are usually front-line ministries. The model of build it and they will come is dying out. That is what the whole missional movement is all about - being the church, going out of the 4 walls of the auditorium and reaching lost people rather than just hoping they will show up to hear the sermon preached by the professional minister and in an instant turn their life over to Christ.
After-school program for school kids has tremendous opportunities for evangelism/ministry. Faith and creativity lend a lot of different ways of organizing that can be custom fit to just about any community and congregation.
just wanted to add...
In our few months at Memorial, before coming to Guadalajara, I learned so much from Norm Haren while sitting with him in the food pantry.
I learned by watching him love people and care for people and pray with people. Very cool.
http://www.RiverCityMinistry.org
We've won many souls over the years by establishing college ministries serviced with small group bible chats and door to door evangelism in the dorms. In the communities we also reach out by training families to do evangelism in the many parks we have here in New York, where people flock to from the spring to the fall. Many hospital visits, benevolence opportunities and bible studies arise from these activities.
http://www.highlandchurch.org/ministry/community-ministry
We had a community giveaway at our church that was a bigger success than we hoped. Was a pretty big chore to organize the stuff, but giving it away was easy.
We have seen positive results.
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