When I use the term “outreach” I am referring to events or projects that are designed to help spread the gospel and bring the good news to those who need it.  These programs may not necessarily help an individual or a family specifically, but are created to increase awareness of the church and let the community know that they are welcome.    

 An example of this would be Faith’s Annual Pumpkin Fest.  This event takes place around Halloween and we give all children who attend the event a free pumpkin and other treats.  While most, if not all, of the children attending the event can certainly afford to buy their own pumpkin, we host the event as a way to let our community know that we are hear and that we have something special to share.  When children and their parents arrive for the event, they are warmly greeted by members of the congregation and our pastor.  If they are interested in finding out more about Faith, we are certainly more than willing to discuss this with them.  However, if they come strictly for the pumpkins and refreshments, we greet them just as warmly, thank them for coming and send them on their way.  We believe that the most important thing, especially during their first encounter with the congregation, is that they leave the event knowing that we are a warm and loving congregation and that we will be there should they ever need us.

There is a temptation at these types of events to approach visitors and begin to encourage them to visit during worship or to begin talking to them about “joining”.  Over the years, we have occasionally fallen victim to this temptation and we have found that it almost always has the exact opposite effect.  We have found that people like to make important decisions on their own terms and according to their own timeframe.  They may be very interested in attending your church, but if they feel they are being pushed or coersed, they will often pull back and hesitate to take any further action. 

We also feel these events are important because of the lessons we have learned from studies of human nature done by marketing and advertising firms.  At Faith we subscribe to the theory that it takes an average of seven “touches” before a person is comfortable enough with our congregation to actually consider attending a worship service.  These “touches” can range from reading the name of the church in a newspaper article, to actually visiting the church for an event or gathering.  At some point during those seven “touches”, people will begin to recognize the name of the church and their familiarity will only continue to grow.

We also believe these events are important because we have experienced failure in using the “if you build it, they will come” theory.  This refers to the idea that if you create an attractive worship experience, train your congregation to be warm and welcoming and take other actions necessary to make your congregation a desirable destination, that eventually people will come and your congregation will grow.  While these steps are certainly essential if your intent is to grow your congregation, none of it will matter if people don’t know you exist.

In conclusion, we have experienced solid growth at Faith in recent years and while there are many reasons for this, there is little doubt that our mission and outreach programs have been the foundation for this success and that one without the other makes for an incomplete ministry.

First, when I use the word “mission”, I am referring to events or projects that the church undertakes that are specifically designed to help people in need in our community or sometimes even halfway around the world.  These programs are created strictly for the benefit of these individuals and any other benefits that could arise are coincidental. 

A good example of this is Faith’s support of the education of students in Ghana in Africa.  Many of these young boys and girls are from families that cannot afford to send them to school.  As a result, many of them go to work at a young age and remain uneducated throughout their lives.  Faith supports as many of these students as is financially possible and does so without any benefit to the congregation except for the feeling that comes with knowing you have done something to help someone else.  

While programs like the funding of education in Ghana are initiated only for the benefit of the children, there are ancillary benefits for the congregation.  These kinds of projects often generate publicity for the congregation.  While some people may say it is wrong for the congregation to use this publicity to its advantage, I believe that as long your intentions are true there is no reason that these good works cannot be made known.  Besides, as anyone who has tried to get publicity for their congregation can tell you, you have to take advantage of every opportunity you can get! 

Also, mission programs are something that is expected of Christian congregations and you better believe that people checking out your church are going to look to see how committed the congregation is to mission.  When we meet people at our many events, commitment to mission is often the first thing people ask about our congregation.  

However, even knowing that mission is the right thing to do, that’s not the only reason we do it.  Above everything else, the reason we should be active in mission is that Jesus instructed us to.  There are so many quotes from Jesus concerning service to our fellow man that it would be impossible to list them all, but one of my favorites comes from John 13:35.  In this passage Jesus says “By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  

In Matthew 22 Jesus says that while the greatest commandment is “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind”, the second is “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Listing this as the second greatest commandment should leave little doubt about Jesus’ feelings on the matter. 

Jesus also lets us know that this commandment has no boundaries.  In Mark 10:21 when a man tells Jesus that he wishes to have eternal life and has already followed the commandments throughout his life.  Jesus tells him “sell what you own, and give the money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven.”  This passage teaches us two lessons.  First, that our earthly possessions will mean nothing when it comes to entering heaven and in some cases earthly riches can actually prevent us from reaching eternal life.  Jesus is also very direct in regards to what he wants the man to do with his money.  Jesus could have said to throw your possessions in the garbage or to sell them and bring the money to me.  But instead Jesus continues his lesson by letting us know that the money should be give specifically to those in need. 

Next week I will write about my definition of the term “outreach”.

Another quality organization is Mercy Corps which you can find at www.mercycorps.org.  Mercy Corps is “a team of 3,700 professionals helping turn crisis into opportunity for millions around the world.”  What Mercy Corps does is to use their skills to help people “build secure, productive and just communities”  Communities like these are then able to deal with poverty and oppression much more effectively than they previously did.  Mercy Corps allocates more than 89% of their resources to their programs.  If the concept of “individuals helping themselves” is important to you, Mercy Corps maybe the right group for you.

If you are interested in an organization that deals with the hunger specifically within the United States, Feeding America is a charity you should check out.  Feeding America is a network of organizations and sponsors who are dedicated to addressing hunger in America.  When these organizations bond together, they create a larger system that is then more powerful and more efficient than any of the groups could be on their own.  You can find them at www.feedingamerica.org.

Some other sites you might want to look at are www.millenniumpromise.org, the World Food Program www.wfp.org, and the Clinton Global Initiative at www.clintonglobalinitiative.com.

Hunger is obviously a serious problem throughout the world, but perhaps the saddest fact of all is that there is plenty of food in the world to feed every person several times over.  The problem is getting the food to the people while it is still fresh and wholesome.  These organizations are all doing their part to address this problem, but they can’t do it alone.  With help from all of us, maybe we really can eliminate world hunger in our lifetime.

After a lot of thought and prayer, we finally stumbled upon an idea that helped us give to the greater church without diverting much needed funds from our congregation.  I know this is going to seem impossibly easy, but we were shocked at how well it worked.  All we did was get our hands on a jar and put a sign on it that said “Benevolence Change”.  Then we asked our members to going into their pockets and purses and take whatever change they could find and drop it into the jar.  They shouldn’t give change that they needed for something else, just extra coins that they would probably end up leaving on their dresser or in the ash tray in their car.

In just a few weeks, the jar began to fill with change.  While a few stray coins probably don’t mean much in our pocket, if we can collect that small amount of coins from a large number of people, the amount really starts to add up.  Soon we had to move to a bigger jar and finally the amount in the jar grew to the point that we had to lock the jar away each week. 

The jar became such a regular habit for our members that when they didn’t have any change, so began dropping paper money into the jar.  By the end of the year, we had collected enough change so that our benevolence giving was roughly 5% of our total collections.  And all of this from nothing but an empty jar and a request for some loose change!

One of the easiest ways to help is to go to a website and click a button.  That website is www.thehungersite.com.  On that page you will see a large button with the words “Click Here to Give – it’s FREE”.  Each time a visitor clicks on that button, a donation is made by the site’s sponsors to charities dedicated to eradicating world hunger.  There are a number of other ways you can help so take a look around the site. 

If you prefer a more hands-on approach check www.fmsc.org, the website for an organization called Feed My Starving Children.  FMSC is a non-profit Christian organization that is based in Minnesota but also has a location in Aurora, Illinois.  The approach this organization takes is to have volunteers participate by packing meals that are then shipped to more than 60 countries around the world.  While this is a more time-consuming method, it is a very powerful experience and a way for volunteers to know they are helping people and thereby making a difference. 

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America also has a very significant program to fight hunger.  The ELCA program addresses hunger using four distinct yet connected strategies: relief, development, education and advocacy.  ELCA World Hunger takes a long-term approach to the problem and has been designed to be a comprehensive and sustainable solution.  Their website is located at www.elca.org/hunger. 

I would love to hear your ideas and suggestions!

One of the simplest, and often times most effective, health-related services you can provide is blood pressure screening. Keeping track of blood pressure is one of the most important things an individual can do to assure good health. You can check to see if you have any doctors, nurses or other healthcare professionals in your congregation. If you do and you can get them to agree to volunteer, you can make this a regular, recurring program. If you don’t have anyone in your congregation, check with your local hospital or clinic to see if they can help.

While blood pressure is certainly important, so are blood donations. My advice would be to contact a local service to come to your location and hold a blood drive. You will need to produce a schedule and schedule appointments for your drive. You will also need to provide volunteers on the day of the drive to check-in donors. This is a relatively easy program to run especially when considering that lives could be saved!

Another popular healthcare service you can provide is the administration of flu shots. This is also a program that I would suggest you outsource to professionals. These inoculations are very popular with senior citizens and can attract a great deal of interest.

Healthcare is something everyone needs at one time or another, so health-related events can help you get your message to a wide variety of people. There are many other programs you could participate in including hosting health lectures, collecting supplies to send to countries in need and many more.

My interest in mission did not come to me naturally.  I am an accountant by profession, so my natural inclination was toward numbers more than people.  A decade ago or so, I was elected president of Faith’s Congregation Council.  During my term, I was approached by another member of the Council, Diane, who was concerned that Faith did not have an organized mission and outreach program.  At that time my concern was with growing the church and assuring the congregation’s viability into the future.  I soon learned that mission projects are the best way to grow a church.  Soon Diane had taken me under her wing and we teamed up to create a new Mission Team at Faith.  Sadly, Diane passed away in an auto accident a few years later.  However, in those years, Diane taught me a lot about the power and importance of mission programs and the success we have enjoyed would not have been possible without her efforts and enthusiasm for mission and outreach. 

 I look forward to sharing what I have learned and learning from all of you as well.  I plan to update this blog weekly so please check back and if you find this topic interesting, I hope you will subscribe as well.