The Mission Service

Church Planting Series, Part eight

The grandson of a friend of mine became a pastor at a church where his grandfather had served many years before.

Imagine the thrill as the grandson sifted through old files and saw his own grandfather’s handiwork: minutes of board meetings, fliers from ministry initiatives, printed sermons and bible class notes.

As the grandson scanned old worship service bulletins, he kept coming across a calendar item that confused him. Each Sunday in the late afternoon there was a calendar listing called “The Mission Service.” What in the world was “The Mission Service”? The grandson was intrigued. In the worship bulletins after his grandfather left, “The Mission Service” listing disappeared. The church also began to decline.

It took just a few phones calls and personal visits to unravel the mystery. The old-timers remembered what “The Mission Service” was. Every Sunday afternoon the grandfather traveled to a neighboring community to hold a special service. The location of the worship service varied from community to community. Sometimes church members would attend; sometimes the pastor would venture out by himself. But every week the pastor tried something new. Some of the services kept going for months until a person was raised up to take over the worshiping community. Other services never caught on or “fizzled” out due to lack of response. But as an elderly man who grew up under the grandfather’s pastorate said, “Your grandfather taught us that a church should always be reaching new communities.”

This is a true story. This is how the church used to behave. This was NORMAL for the church. Pastors had multiple preaching stations. They tried new things. The congregation not only supported these efforts, they participated in this outreach. Why? Because a church was about reaching new communities.

The goal of a local church was not to become comfortable, or to acquire wealth, or to become the stylish place to be, or to be the “high-tech” church of the area. It was to reach new communities.

For the new pastor’s grandfather, the strategy was “The Mission Service”—-create some relationships in a new area, get people talking, do some publicity, knock on some doors, discover some needs, and go there to do something. Make a “splash” and see what God does with it.

These days we are challenged in two ways. First, we must not overlook the old and simple ways of reaching out. Get out of the office and try something! Bring the living Word of God with you and see what happens.

Second, we need to shatter the notion that a few “expert” paradigms from the last fifty years are the only options we have for church planting and ministry expansion. There are simple and exciting ways to reach meaningfully into communities. We just need to listen, watch, pray, and go to work.

What might make a “splash” for Jesus in an unreached area near you? What will your “Mission Service" look like?

Infiltration

Church Planting Series, Part seven

I read about Cameron Hughes the other day. He’s a Super Fan. He’s a hired gun to fire up crowds at sporting events. Hughes sits in the crowds—-just like any other fan. He blends in. But once the stadium crowd settles in and settles down, Cameron Hughes springs into action. He gets out of his seat. He dances. He urges people to cheer and shout for the home team. He peels off layers of team t-shirts and launches them into the crowd.

The strategy works. The team owners pay Hughes a couple of thousand dollars to do his thing, and it’s worth the investment. Fans enjoy the game. The crowd responds. The home team gets the home-field advantage.

It’s all about paying a price to send someone in so everything can change.

Sound familiar?

God paid the highest price as He sent His only Son into the world so everything could change. Jesus infiltrated the world-—beaten, bleeding, dying, forgiving, rising. He still infiltrates our lives—-the living Word, the water and the Spirit, bread and wine. Because of Jesus everything has changed. Life is new. Life is eternal.

Now you’re the Super Fan. You’re sent to infiltrate the crowd-—the sin-sulking, fad-lulled, hope-drained, reality-blinded crowd.

Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter worship are not necessarily your acts of infiltration. You’re equipped and sent at those gatherings. You’re fed and forgiven. You’re renewed and returned to the grace and will of God.

But where’s your infiltration?

I’ve been speaking to church planters and ministry entrepreneurs about infiltration lately. I’ve been calling this infiltration work “splash” events (thank you, Rev. Paul Meyer for the term!). How and where are you “splashing” in your community? A church planter is not as much about meeting in a building as he is about splashing in the community.

For example, you schedule an extra Easter service (on Saturday) in a growing area (or Christmas service—start planning now!). You publicize it and make it as visible as possible. You recruit a core team to attend. Then you watch for the community’s response. Who knows, you may find some servant-leaders who crave getting together as children of God! Infiltrated! A new beginning!

What if you decide to offer four weeks of Christian parenting classes in a local community center? Once again, you publicize, recruit and bring a core group. Splash! Infiltration! What might God do?

What if you offer Bible study time in two area nursing homes? What if you bring your VBS to a neighborhood that needs a church presence? What if you start a Christian young adult gathering in an area of town that is new and growing? What if you reach back into an urban area with a weekday kids ministry or after school program or mother’s day out?

Do you get the idea? Splash! Infiltration! Seeds planted! Something may grow. Momentum has begun. The Spirit is at work.

Planting churches and expanding outreach means that you pay the price to send someone in so everything can change.

It’s the infiltration that God demonstrated in Jesus and shows us so clearly during this Holy Week.