November 3, 2015
Making Room
The idea of making room for others is a difficult one. We’re usually okay inviting others into what we’re already doing, so long as they are willing and able to find a way to fit into that space–the space that we’ve left available for them. At a Thanksgiving meal, this would be something like having two empty chairs around your table that you invite a couple of friends to fill. It costs you nothing but a little bit more food to invite these friends in because they fit into what you were already planning for.
Making room for others is akin to moving furniture out of your living room and arranging an extra set of tables and chairs to accommodate the others you’ve invited last-minute. You might not have the same kind of tablecloth, or enough dishes for everyone to have the same ones, but there is still a sense of welcome and invitation and intentional creation of space for your late Thanksgiving joiners.
What we’re doing with Re-Creation Community is making space for people to come and worship among us who wouldn’t fit at our current worship table. It’s not a lack of physical space so much as it is a sense that the traditional table does not meet the spiritual needs that they have. So we’re popping up the tables and bringing in extra chairs so that our new friends have space to worship in a way that’s meaningful for them. We have made it very clear that everyone is welcome to come to either service, but the creation of a new style of gathering is essentially creating space for others who don’t fit in our traditional service.
Why? Why are we taking the effort to create space in this way? Wouldn’t it be easier to just invite people who already fit into our traditional worship space?
I think the answer that we have to give is because this is what God has called our congregation to do. Before I even got here, this is the direction that you were led to be looking. Similarly, God was leading me to ask these questions and begin my own journey of what it would look like to make space in worship for our target group. The Holy Spirit placed us together with this calling: to make space for people under 40 to have a meaningful worshipping community.
But I don’t think this is an “either/or” proposition. Instead, I think we are meant to be becoming an invitational community as a whole. Who do we know in our lives who might be comfortable in and looking for a traditional worship service? How can we invite them to join us in the traditional service? And who do we know in our lives who might be comfortable in and looking for something different? How can we invite them to join us at Re-Creation?
This is a whole-church community endeavor. We are all called to make space, and we are all called to invite others to join us. Please be praying and inviting over this month as we prepare for our Re-Creation launch on November 29th.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Re-Creation Community
is launching
Sunday, November 29!
We’ve been busy downstairs as we prepare for the launch of the second service in the fellowship hall downstairs. We’ve had two preview services, which have been very well-received.
Now we need everyone to step in and help with inviting folks to come. I have had several people ask if I think that we will get a lot of people to come who do not currently attend our church. My answer is always the same–we will only if we invite them. People need to know what we are doing and have an invitation to come if they have a chance of coming. We have already sent out postcards to those who have attended one of our bridge events or who have some connection with our church. But a personal invitation is so much more likely to result in someone taking the chance to try us out.
We’ll be starting with an Advent series on November 29 at 10:30 a.m. There are postcards in the church lobby that you can use to invite people to come. We will have two Sundays that are worship oriented, followed by a discussion Sunday and then a service-oriented gathering which will include a pancake breakfast. Please take some time to pray and think about who you can invite to join us.
September 29, 2015
Our outreach activities are in full swing, and Re-Creation Community is on target to launch on November 29! We have many things to be thankful for, and you and your support are some of them!
We had a great group and a good time at our first preview service on Sunday. We have decided that, for the time being, both services will begin at 10:30 a.m. If problems arise that become too large to handle, then we can make adjustments. But for now, that’s what we’ll be doing.
This means you can mark your calendars for our second preview service on October 25, 2015! We’ll be doing a worship-oriented gathering around Hagar’s story and her name for God as the God who Sees Me. I’m excited about that, and excited to explore different ways to meaningfully worship God in this place. Please remember to invite folks to attend who you think will be willing to give us feedback on how it goes.
Then, October 16, we will be gathering at 5:30 in the parking lot at Grandville High School to tailgate, hand out postcards to invite folks to our launch gathering, and have a good time getting to know one another. All are welcome!
November 29 is our official launch date, so please continue thinking about who you might be able to invite to attend that launch service. We’re already planning to advertise on Craigslist and Facebook and through postcards. But a personal invitation much more likely to get someone in the doors!
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Anna
August 11, 2015
I’ve been hearing this song on the radio, a song called Exhale by Plumb. At first I couldn’t really understand what the words were saying, but I began to listen hard. This is the part that caught my attention:
Oh God We breathe in your grace
We breathe in your grace
And exhale
Oh God we do not exist for us
But to share Your grace and love
And exhale
As I ponder these words, I think it’s such a great word picture of what it looks like to live a life of faith–a kingdom life with Christ as King. Sometimes we get overwhelmed by our own imperfections and inadequacies, by what we cannot do. Sometimes we think that God’s kingdom can only be built by us. But none of these things are true. Instead, we are to love God and love our neighbors, and the way that we do that is seeking out the presence and the grace of God and then living the rest of our lives as an “exhale” of what he has given us. We are not the source of transformation. We are not the ones who are burdened to produce anything. Instead, it is through our connection to God that we are able to give and live the way that he has taught us.
Doesn’t that just relieve some of the pressure we put on ourselves? This life of faith is a life of walking with God, and all of our outreach has its source in what God has given us.
July 30, 2015
We’ve been talking about how we can daily live on mission with God in loving, serving, and sacrificing for those around us. But that idea can be very abstract unless applied to real life. So I wanted to share with you a story about how I saw it in action this week.
I happened to have a hearing in Grandville’s district court this week, right across from our church. When I attend hearings I am super focused on my clients and what they need. Occasionally I have time to connect with people, but mostly I’m there for a purpose, and that’s to serve my clients. But on this day, I was waiting around for someone at the court to notice that I was waiting to see a client. One of the court officers did, and jumped up to assist me. On the way to see the client, we exchanged a few words, and I was left with the impression that the officer saw me as a human being who had value and worth–worth talking to and worth “serving” by stepping up to assist me with what I needed so that I could help my client.
It doesn’t sound like much, and it’s not, yet it’s everything. Our world is full of transactional relationships, or relations based on what you can do for me, or relationships cut off from true communion because of our dependence on technology. When someone takes time to treat another person like a human being, that’s a big deal. It was such a big deal (and so unusual in my world), that I’m still reflecting on it 3 days later.
What if we all committed to taking the time and making the effort in our daily interactions to make other people feel like valuable human beings. How would that change our experience on the phone for a service call or walking down the sidewalk or serving in a restaurant? How would God’s light and love be spread to others through these tiny, almost invisible daily interactions? What if, more than that, we ask God to go ahead of us each day and lead us to people who need that kind of interaction today?
July 21, 2015
It’s really easy to be friends with people who are like us. Maybe they have the same interests in activities. Maybe they have the same values. Maybe their families look just like ours or they are from the same religious, ethnic, or socioeconomic sphere. Interacting with others just like us takes little effort to translate. Generally, our conversations flow smoothly and a lot of our assumptions are understood and agreed with.
But the book of Luke, which we’ve been talking a lot about this summer, paints Jesus as One who was deeply concerned about the outcast, the oppressed, and the marginalized. In fact, Luke reports that Jesus states that the kingdom of God is made for these folks. We’ll be talking this week at Church in the Park about how the invitation to fellowship with God is made to all those non-religious folks who don’t seem (to religious folks) like they’d be interested in spending time with God.
This aspect of Jesus’s priorities and God’s character has profound implications for how we are meant to be living in the world. One writer has said that, while the kingdom of God is not yet fully here, the People of God are walking around as a living parable–a living picture–of what that kingdom is like. If God is concerned about the marginalized, so, too should we be.
But what does that mean? How do we go about befriending the marginalized? Who are they anyway?
The first step in any relationship I think is a friendly curiosity about the other person and a willingness to ask questions and listen. Become a learner, and learn everything you can about the person you’re trying to befriend. Listen carefully, and ask questions to clarify those assumptions, values, and beliefs that they are working from. You may be surprised by what kind of deep friendships can be formed with people who don’t look, talk, or believe like you do.
July 6, 2015
The July 4th Outreach went great! We probably had around 500 people come by for free water, popcorn, and icee pops. We were able to make connections, give out information about VBS and other upcoming events, and provide a place for many to use restrooms or get a drink of water. A young boy (probably 6 or 7 years old) won our “Family Fun” raffle prize, which consisted of 5 indoor and outdoor games and activities the family can do together. A huge thank-you to everyone who came and helped put it together. It was a group effort, and we definitely couldn’t have done it without your help.
Tuesday night at 7pm we have our monthly outreach prayer meeting in the Lounge. Please consider joining us to sing and pray together for God’s work among and through our congregation. We’re also planning a barbecue/second-service launch discussion on Wednesday night. It’s not too late to decide to come! We’ll be eating, talking through strategy, and just getting to know each other a little bit better.
Good things are happening here! Please be praying this week for the three or four people who expressed prayer requests from the community.
June 24, 2015
I’ve been working with Grandville United Methodist for almost four months now, and I’ve taken some time this week to reflect on where we’ve come from and where we’re headed. My first few months have been spent assessing where we’re at and coming up with strategy for the future. It’s a process, and we’re still in the midst of it, but overall I’m encouraged.
One of the most important things that we have done was to take some time to equip people in our congregation with a Scriptural basis as well as some skills and strategies for doing personal outreach. This is an essential step toward growing both our traditional service and our upcoming second service. To some extent, everything we do from here on out hinges on whether we as a congregation are personally reaching out to the people around us. If you missed that class and are interested in the curriculum that we went through, please let me know and I’d be happy to get some to you.
Now I think we’re entering the second phase on our journey toward a second service, which is to do some serious praying and planning. Our target for launch is the first Sunday of Advent, which is the end of November. But in order to be ready by that time, we will need more people to step up and be willing to commit to making the launch of the second service a priority. If you are interested in hearing more about what that commitment will look like and what our plans are for planning and preparing for the second service, please join us for a barbecue at Kurt and Judy Overmeyer’s house on July 8 at 6:30 p.m. Please RSVP as soon as possible to Anna so that we can have enough food.
I am excited about where God is leading us and how he is already working to prepare and provide for us going forward. Will you please consider coming and joining us in this really important work?
June 16, 2015
Who did you send your Church in the Park postcard to this week? I gave one to a friend of mine when we had lunch last week, and I’ve got a couple more people in mind to invite.
Church in the Park starts this Sunday at 8:30 a.m. at Wedgewood Park in Grandville. We’ll gather for a simple, casual church service in the beautiful outdoors. I’m greatly looking forward to our subject to the summer, which is “What does it look like when heaven meets earth?”
When Jesus spent time on earth, he talked an awful lot about the “kingdom of God” or the “kingdom of heaven.” At its heart, this kingdom exists anywhere that God is allowed to rule and reign. This is great news, because we all have the ability to be a part of bringing God’s kingdom on earth (which we pray for every week when we say the Lord’s Prayer), by simply asking God to rule and reign in our hearts as king.
So I hope you’ll consider coming this summer to explore these ideas with us. We’ll be talking about the same thing at both the Church in the Park service and the normal service in the Sanctuary. Wherever you decide to worship with us, you won’t miss a thing!
Oh, and as an update on an outreach activity, we had a great turn out during the School’s Out Scavenger Hunt. We gave out over 150 bottles of water and had at least 50 families come through and receive invitations to VBS and Church in the Park!
June 1, 2015
I read a book this week in preparation for our summer series regarding the kingdom that God invites us to join when we choose to follow Christ. This quote jumped out at me as a great description of what the church is meant to be in the world. It’s got me asking questions like, “Where is the community of Grandville experiencing pain right now?” And “What prayers ought we to offer on behalf of those in pain?” and “What does bringing God’s kingdom through surrender, service, and sacrifice in that place look like for GUMC?”
Will you join us on Tuesday night for our outreach prayer meeting? We will be praying that God would reveal to us the pain that surrounds us in our community. We will be praying that God will show us where he is acting in the midst of that pain. And we will offer ourselves and our resources to be used of God in bringing his kingdom through service and sacrifice in that place. The prayer meeting is at 7pm in the Lounge.
May 27, 2015
There are a few different goals that we have with our outreach. The ultimate goal is always to be making disciples for the transformation of the world. But that’s a process, and we have to invite participation in a broad range of spiritual activities to be able to accomplish this goal. Our outreach activities are on the front line of this work, and we do different types of outreach as different steps in the process.
One of the very first steps that we must take in order to accomplish our ultimate mission is to become the kind of place that people who have spiritual issues and questions are willing to come. And how will they know that we exist or that we are that type of welcoming, spiritual place unless they’ve had an opportunity to get to know us in informal, non-threatening places? So one of the important things we can do is to be available and present during community events. We did this by hosting a table at the Art Walk a few weeks ago, and we’re going to do it again during the July 4th School’s Out Scavenger Hunt on June 5.
During this event, scavenger hunters will come to our location as part of the scavenger hunt. People from our church can be there to be a friendly and welcoming face as kids rush in and out. It is an unlikely place for conversations to be struck up, but maybe that will happen to. We simply want to make ourselves and our church available and present in this community event. We also have the opportunity to provide volunteers for carnival games in the carnival corridor not too far away. If you’re interested in helping, please contact Anna at anna.gumc@gmail.com this week so I can get you plugged in. Thanks!
May 20, 2015
One of the most challenging things about living life as a follower of Christ is to figure out how what he has done and who he is should be affecting my day-to-day responses to people. This week I had two situations come up where I had to ask these questions: if I am going to live under the rule and reign of Christ, how should I respond? If I am going to be a part of his mission to bless others, how should I act?
The first situation happened during a hearing. It was actually the continuation of a hearing that we’d started last week. Last week the other attorney was clearly dealing with a level of frustration toward life in general. This week, when we came back together, the attorney was still upset, and the emotion displayed in response to things not going the way the attorney wanted seemed extreme for what was actually going on. This made me wonder what is going on in this attorney’s life. It’s a delicate situation–the world of law is a tough place and our humanity is often seen as weakness. In this situation, it seems unkind to draw attention to the emotion and to point out what would otherwise be perceived as weakness. Yet it also seems inhumane and unkind not to treat the attorney like a human being by acknowledging the person’s pain. So what could I do? I determined that the best thing to do here was simply to pray for the attorney–that God would show up and comfort and bless in whatever way was appropriate. And I resolved to be on the lookout for other ways to bless this attorney when we meet again.
The second situation happened when a hearing was scheduled for 1:30 on Friday afternoon, which happens to be the Friday before Memorial day, and it happens to be a day that I had set aside to go to the Hermitage, a silent retreat place where I go to pray. I really, really need that time of solitude at a basic human level, and I also planned to go and pray for our church and the second service and all of our outreach activities. So I tried to get the hearing time changed and was thwarted by opposing counsel. They have their reasons, but my level of frustration was just about as high as it ever gets. How was I going to respond? I could have yelled at the secretary who gave me the news, but it wasn’t really her fault. I could have thrown a fit or had a bad attitude toward everyone I meet for the next few days because of this frustration. I could show up at the hearing on Friday and be a total jerk because I should be somewhere else. And so, once again, I prayed. I prayed and asked God to help me with my feelings of frustration. I offered him the feelings that are based a little bit on my needs and a little bit on my selfishness and asked God to transform me into the image of Christ. I asked him to help me treat people well in spite of the fact that I am frustrated and upset.
Living under the rule and reign of Christ, on mission with him to bless the world and to be an agent of his reconciliation, is an attitude as much as it is anything. Yes, there are huge questions that can be asked about the big stuff we can and should be doing–major life decisions and strategic planning. But more than that, it’s a day-to-day willingness to surrender my needs and desires to God and an invitation for him to keep working in and through me.
What opportunities have you had to choose to live under Christ’s rule and reign this week? How has he been shaping and using you to bless the world around you?
May 12, 2015
I know that the invitation to the adult Sunday School class has gone out across several different mediums, but I want to take this opportunity to remind you that we’re starting this Sunday and invite you to join us. Even if you can’t make it to all the sessions, we can work through some of the conversation over email and you’ll still get some benefit out of the experience. So here’s a rundown on what we’re doing:
When: Sunday Mornings at 9:15 a.m.
Where: In the Lounge
What: Personal Outreach Sunday School Class - where do you find people who are not currently following Jesus, and how do you relate to those who don’t share your faith or values?
Who: I’ll be teaching from curriculum that I’ve provided, and we have a great group of people who’s planning to come. We hope you’ll join us!
If you’d like to come and don’t have materials already, please let me know so I can make sure I have enough on Sunday morning. Thanks!
May 5, 2015
How have you been blessing other people this week? Have you been looking for and seeing ways that you can just be a blessing to those around you?
I’ve been thinking about this question with regard to a guy who often sits at the bus stop outside the courthouse. Many times as I leave the courthouse to go to my car, this guy just sitting at the bus stop, asking passers by for money. I usually walk by without stopping, but with a smile. But once not too long ago I found myself crossing to the other side of the road so that I wouldn’t have to walk by him, wouldn’t be asked for money, and wouldn’t have to feel the discomfort I always feel. That day I was like the Levite in the story of the Good Samaritan, too busy to stop by and see how I can help, or at least to treat the man sitting there begging like a human being.
So as I’ve been thinking about blessing, I’ve been wondering what it would mean for me to bless this man who sits at the bus stop. Sure, I could give him the cash that he’s asking for, and maybe that would be blessing enough. But is there something else I could do to bless him? Could I pause for a few minutes, sit down beside him, and hear his story? Would it be a blessing for me to speak kindly to him and treat him like the person made in God’s image that he is? Or maybe he needs help and connection to other resources in the community. Perhaps I should be listening for those things also.
So this week, I have been thinking about and praying that God will show me how to bless this man the next time I see him. Will you pray with me, that God would bless his life and his relationships and that God would show me how to reach out to this man?
April 30, 2015
May is a big month for us in ourtreach, so this week I’d like to take some time to invite you to join us in some of the concrete outreach activities we have going on right now:
(1) All About Millennials class - May 11 at 7:00 in the Lounge - On this evening, I’m going to share from my research about who the Millennial generation is and how we can interact with them in a positive way. If you have anyone who is between 15 and 34 in your life, you won’t want to miss this!
(2) Outreach Prayer Meeting and Worship - May 5 at 6:30 in the Lounge - We’re getting together to pray about our church’s outreach, and we’d love for you to pray with us! And this month we’re adding a short time of worship as well.
(3) Bridge Event Planning Team - Are you good at organizing events? Do you want to see GUMC successfully reach out to young adults? If so, we need your help! In order to build a team of people who will help us launch the second service, we need to do “bridge events” so that we can get to know people who might be interested. Our aim is to have one event each month in the summer. Email me if you’d like to be on this team, and we’ll set up a planning meeting within the next couple of weeks.
(4) Personal Outreach Sunday School Class - May 17-June 14 at 9:15 a.m.- There’s more information about this in the newsletter, but if you’re interested in learning how to have transformative relationships in the real world, this class is for you. RSVP to my email so that we can have enough materials available.
I hope you will consider joining us at one or all of these activities. The success of the second service depends upon our commitment to see these things through.
April 21, 2015
My job here has two different components: one is to equip the people in this church to do outreach in their own personal lives. The second is to lead the formation and implementation of the second worship service. So I want to focus on the second one this week. As we talk about starting a second service, one place that we need to start is in gathering a launch team. The launch team is made up of people who want to help see the second service succeed, even if they themselves don’t plan to attend long-term. We’re looking for all kinds of people with all kinds of gifts. The commitment would be for about a year to help us get things off the ground and stabilized. If you think you’d like to participate in one of these teams, please let me know:
1. Welcoming and Hospitality - These folks help make the coffee, set out the cookies, greet new people, and make sure they know where to go.
2. Children’s ministry - These folks help teach the children who come for children’s church
3. Music ministry - We’re looking for a lead worshipper as well as people who might be on a worship team
4. Technology/sound/service support - We’ll be looking for people who can run a powerpoint and people who can run sound
5. Putting the worship service together (worship design?) - We’re looking for creative people who love God’s word and who are interested in helping others worship God
6. Prayer team - We need people to pray, and pray faithfully for this service and those who attend it!
We also still have space on our lead team, which will help to lead and set the direction for what the second service turns out to be.
So does any of this sound like it might fit something you’re good at and passionate about? If so, please let me know. We’d like to get you plugged in as soon as we can.
April 14, 2015
According to our VCI/second-service coach, there is a denomination of churches that never plants a new church or service until they have 2,500 contacts that they are praying for in the area where that church or service is going to be. As you can imagine, they launch large, and they’re very often successful in their church-planting endeavors. Their churches are vibrant and growing and reproducing.
If that number of contacts is our measuring stick or our guide post along the way, then we are at 2% of where we need to be to start a new service.
Yet before getting discouraged, I think we need to remember 2 things. The first is that throughout the whole book of Acts, when the Christian church was just getting started, the church recognized that it was “the Lord [who] added to their numbers day by day.” It is God who builds the church. It is for us to do the hard work of being available to him and seeking out the people he’s placed in our lives, yes, but it is ultimately God’s miraculous intervention that builds this thing we call the church.
The second is the story of the feeding of the 5,000. In that story, Jesus was teaching on a hillside far away from a town to a large group of people. The disciples approached him and said, “Lord, they are hungry.” Jesus looked at the disciples and said, “you give them something to eat.” So the disciples scrounged around and found one little boy’s lunch–5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. And Jesus gave thanks to God and the food was passed out to the whole crowd, and it miraculously fed them all. Jesus multiplies what little we have to offer him, when we do so in faith.
The group who is available and able and committed to outreach and a second service here at GUMC often seems very small. Our 2% is not nearly the resources and contacts that we have among us. But those who have offered and committed and participated are doing so with great faith and with a willingness to follow where ever God leads. I cannot wait to see how God multiplies what we are offering him in faith.
Will you join us in offering whatever you have to Jesus? Big or small, Jesus can take what is offered and multiply it beyond what we could ever ask or imagine.
April 7, 2015
I have the privilege of giving the sermon this Sunday at church. As you prepare for worship, I’d encourage you to read the short passage of John 20:19-22. Imagine that you are one of the disciples who has lost Jesus to death on a cross, and you are so afraid you are hiding in a room, wondering what to do. Imagine that into that fear and that confusion, Jesus appears, offers you peace and gives you this charge: “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”
What do you envision Jesus sending you to? What is he calling you to, and will you obey?
The heart of God has been from the beginning a heart bent toward reconciling and restoring the broken relationships of this world. What brokenness do you see around you? What brokenness do you cause? What brokenness impacts you? What would happen if God sent the people of his church to mend those broken things and be a part of making things right? What would happen if God sent you to join him in this work?
I am praying that as we consider Jesus’s call, you will join me in saying, “Here I am Lord, send me.”
March 31, 2015
I’ve been giving a lot of thought this week to what worship is and what it should consist of. If we come on Sunday morning to worship God, what does that mean? And if we want to invite younger folks to worship, what would that look like for them?
At its core, I think that worship is always counter-cultural. To ask people to come before God and to set aside personal agendas and submit to God’s rule and reign in our lives takes us right back to the garden. But when we enter worship, we have the opportunity to remind ourselves that we are not God and to experience God’s presence and thank and praise him for who he is.
If these are some of the goals of worship, then how do we achieve those goals in today’s world? What would prompt a person to experience God’s presence? What would prompt someone to praise and thank God for who he is? What would prompt a person to submit to God’s rule and reign in their lives?
If you are willing to share, I would love to hear from you this week. How would you answer these questions? How do the young people or non church-goers in your life answer these questions? The planning and preparation for the second service is underway, and we have a unique opportunity to build it around activities that will prompt worship in the participants. I would love to be able to take into account the needs of the community as we decide how to approach the second service.
March 24, 2015
“Whenever anyone asks you to speak of your hope, be ready to defend it. Yet do this with respectful humility, maintaining a good conscience. . . .” 1 Peter 3:15-16.
Are you ready to explain to someone who asks what reason you have to hope in Christ? Maybe no one has ever asked you about it before, but it’s happened to me several different times, and every time it catches me off guard. I remember a lunch with a friend not too long ago, where he simply asked me out of the blue, “so faith seems to be pretty important to you, how did it get that way?” What an open door! I remember spending over an hour sharing with him parts of my life story.
And I think story is the key word here. I didn’t have a whole speech prepared–I hadn’t even thought about it ahead of time. But I had stories about how I had seen God working in the world around me and in my life, and I was able to share those with him.
We don’t have to be caught off guard in these conversations, and Peter encourages us to actually think about it ahead of time. What stories do you have of God’s faithfulness to you? What stories do you have about your doubts and your struggles with him? Are you prepared to share these stories if someone asks you about your faith? If not, why don’t you take a few minutes this week and ask God to bring stories to mind that might help you to explain who he is and who he has been to you throughout your life.
March 17, 2015
When we think about outreach, sometimes it seems hard to get started. Maybe we don’t know any people to reach out to, and we wonder how to even make contacts in a natural way. Maybe we are in a busy phase of life and we don’t know where we would find the time for one more relationship.
Sometimes God calls us to go into new and unknown territory, but many times he has already placed us where he would like to use us to bring his kingdom. So outreach sometimes is more about a change of attitude than a change of your life activities or circumstances.
So right where you’re living and working right now - who’s there? Who do you see each day, or each week? What are their stories? Do you know them as people, or simply as functions of the role they might play in your life?
So the first step to take toward outreach is to look around you and to see those people. Observe how they interact with the world around them. Do they seem happy or sad? Distracted or present?
The next step might be to reach out in some way related to a shared experience or something you’ve observed. For someone who is discouraged, maybe you could bring a card or a small gift along the next time you see them. Or you might invite a person for coffee or invite someone to watch a March Madness game with you and your family. The key is finding a natural way of connecting around events and activities that you already do. Start with where you’re at. You’ll be surprised at how many opportunities present themselves, if only you’re prayerfully looking for them.
March 10, 2015
I think it would be a good idea for me to write a little tidbit each week for us to ponder about outreach. If you’re reading this and thinking, “Why do outreach at all?” then I’d encourage you to come to our first outreach class on April 14 at 7pm. We’ll talk through what Scripture says about God’s mission to restore and reconcile all things to Christ and what part we have to play in that.
For those of you who have pretty well signed on to being a part of GUMC’s outreach activities, the first thing that I want to challenge you with comes from the message I preached in February. Who is in your life who does not follow Christ or does not participate in Christian fellowship? What might God be doing in their lives right now? My challenge to you is for the next 60 days, you would pray faithfully for the people who came to mind.
There are several things you can pray, but I think the easiest way to pray is just to pray for God’s blessings on their lives. Pray that he will bless them spiritually, financially, related to job or school, physically, and emotionally. And then pray that God will reveal to you the work he is doing in them.
And would you do one more thing? Would you send me an email to let me know the names of the people you are praying for? That way I can join you in lifting them up to our faithful Father who longs for all people to know him. As you pray, I will be praying for and with you, that God’s Spirit would do a wondrous work here among us.
