Love Thy Neighbor: Outreach & Evangelism
By: Mike Wallace, Congregational Vice President
Outreach refers to the activities, events, and human care ministries that we do as a congregation to engage the non-churched people in our community by meeting their needs in some way. Outreach focuses on actions that demonstrate God’s love for those around us who don’t have a church home. Examples include food banks, festivals, seminars, preschool programs, church suppers, etc.
Outreach provides opportunities for a congregation’s members to meet, and continue contact , with non-churched people in the community. Through these repeated “touch points” that emphasize caring and support, relationships are built between individuals in the two groups of people.
Once relationships are established through outreach, evangelism can happen. Evangelism is nothing more than sharing the Good News of the Gospel. When individual Christians share their faith in Jesus and His forgiveness with others, it is called Witnessing. Of course, evangelism also happens through a church’s Word and Sacrament ministries, i.e., worship services and Bible studies. God can, and will, work through the witness of congregational members, and the evangelism work of Pastors, to lead unbelievers to faith and connect them to His Church.
Remember: Outreach and Evangelism/Witnessing share the same goal . . . However, outreach is primarily an action; Evangelism is primarily a message .
St. Paul’s writing in 1 Corinthians 3:5-9 provides insights into effective outreach and evangelism/witnessing:
5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
This passage reminds us that we can actively and intentionally “plant and water the seeds”, but God does the work of making them grow into faith! We must understand that church growth (i.e., the numbers) is the Holy Spirit’s concern.
Pray
Help me Lord to be a good steward and servant of your gifts and for others to see Your Love for them in all that I do. In Jesus name, AMEN
