Church Outreach

Times change and church outreach methods have to change with the times or they become ineffective. Churches unwilling to change their methods of worship and discipleship will die, and the church’s death rate significantly increases the more the church is unwilling to change. Likewise, the church expedites its own death if it fails to modify its methods of outreach. What I am talking about is church suicide. Churches become so entrenched in their own personal preferences, no matter how ineffective in today’s society, that it commits church suicide. It is reasonable to assume that our Lord will hold those accountable who are unwilling to adapt their ministry for the damage caused to the bride, the larger ecclesiastical church, unless sincere repentance occurs. The problem is not God. He is still effective! Our Lord is still on His throne and He is still working in the lives of His created! The problem is that bold men and women willing to modify their outreach and style of ministry are indeed rare, and possibly the reason that Jesus said in Luke 10:2 that the “harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”

Through observation, I have concluded three essentials to modifying the traditional church to becoming more effective in outreach. Now don’t misunderstand, I am not saying that these are the only three things a church must do, but every church must, at a bare minimum, do these three. Depending upon the people who make up a particular church, there may be many other neglectful habits and sinful behaviors that must change, but every church must do these three items in order to be obedient and effective.

1. Churches must move from paper to digital, with a current website to provide information and advertisement on social media to help intrigue adults and youth with relevant topics. Websites must be current, relevant, and contain the times and locations of people orientated services and events. Social media can also be used to advertise people oriented special events and promote weekly topics for Bible study for relevant life topics. Advertisements are very reasonable on social media and churches can reach a larger and more targeted audience with social media than with print media. Technology can be used to teach a new song being used in the upcoming worship, which both teaches the song and engages the mind to think and prepare for worship. Encourage those in worship and Bible Study to use digital media to advertise the event. If you ask worshipers to send out a tweet to their friends, you will reach thousands of their friends and it will not cost the church any money!
2. Evangelism must move from attracting to going; from the old in-home visitation to lunch, home, and office visits. It is learning to meet people where they flourish. Homes have become a place for a quick respite to renew and re-enter the urban life. Adults spend more time in restaurants, bars, and coffee shops than ever before and most are willing to discuss church and faith if engaged by a friend. A growing number of churches budget funds for this type of evangelistic outreach, especially for the pastor and staff to engage adults who have attended worship or Bible study. Too many urban churches are dying because they are not out in the community, walking with and talking with those who live and work in and around their church. Learn the names of those who wait on your table, and ask them if there is anything you can pray about for them. Let them know you care about them as a person made in the image of God.
3. The gospel presentation itself must be made simpler and used in worship at times when the church has their largest number of guest attending – such a Christmas Eve Candlelight services, which is a must for an urban church. One of the more recent popular presentations of the gospel was developed by Lead Pastor Jimmy Scroggins called “ThreeCircles." It was demonstrated for the Family Church in South Florida and it may be viewed on Vimeo. This simple presentation is also explained as a Life Conversion Guide available through the iTune app store. Unlike Evangelism Explosion and many of the older evangelistic tools, this approach is very simple to learn and use, and does not require a lot of memorization. The three circles can be sketched on a napkin over coffee or lunch, sketched in chalk on a sidewalk, or shown on your phone or iPad.

The fact is that people are still open to the gospel, and they desperately need urban churches to be willing to share faith with them. Often churches move out of the inner city to suburban areas for a variety of reasons, but city dwellers still need Jesus and they are still open to a conversation about spiritual matters. Cities need churches that are willing to make a commitment to be incarnational in the city in order to reach urbanites for Christ. This means that the church and its members are willing to remain in and live among the people in order to reach them for Jesus. Urban churches will face many obstacles, but God can enable them to flourish. Inner city churches have a great opportunity and must accept the challenge to be biblical, evangelistic, and relevant, and their members must work to be visible, viable, and involved in urban living in order to propagate the gospel.