As churches these days scramble to recover from decline and loss of membership many are deciding they have to focus beyond their walls. This is not new. It’s just that in the last half of the last century people just walked in the door, and churches had enough to do just making programs effective and meaningful for them. Now we know we have to go to the people. Jesus challenged his disciples to connect most of all with those who are poor and marginalized. So we seek to do the same. As both a pastor and social worker I’ve been at it all my life and I’ve learned some things. I find there is a continuum of outreach ministry, moving by stages into deeper engagement with the people and then into the underlying causes of people’s struggles.
We start by giving financially, putting money in the plate for this or that. Small children give pennies for starving kids in Africa. Attenders give to some specific cause, as our hearts are tugged and swayed. We might support an agency of the denomination. Our church sponsors another congregation in Mozambique. Or, we give to a Co-Care fund upon which local school social workers can call when a family is in need. I have a Pastor’s Discretionary Fund to which people can give, never knowing who the recipient is on the other end.
This giving can lead to volunteering. Givers to the work of a local agency decided to give their time as well, sorting used clothes or stocking a food pantry. 100 people from four churches gather on a Saturday with rakes and shovels to help clean yards of seniors in the neighborhood. This is direct service: charity work.
The next step is to become engaged in personal development programs, activities which help people make new choices or develop particular life skills. This might include drug or alcohol recovery, or after-school tutoring with children. School-based and school-linked programs increasingly involve faith-based organization collaborations- a school and a congregation partnering, with dozens of volunteers from a church in a particular school. Naturally, such programs can engage school parents, who become church members, and all ends of the partnership are strengthened. The primary intervention is through relationship-building. In measurable ways people’s lives are changed.
Such programs inevitably identify systemic community issues which can be addressed through community development. At Grace Church in Saint Louis we discovered elderly homeowners who could not afford to keep up their historic homes. As homes deteriorated, other property values suffered. So we initiated a repair program deploying visiting youth mission work teams to do exterior home repairs and landscaping. We learned about government and private lending opportunities, and helped engage the seniors in more substantial housing rehabilitation where needed. We worked with the local neighborhood stabilization officer and housing and community development corporations.
When the people of a church roll up their sleeves to become integrally involved in the lives of people in the community, you see the patterns. You discover the laws and policies which need to be changed to alleviate suffering or wrong. The dialogue and research leads to social justice advocacy. As Bishop Robert Schnase wrote, “The church also has a responsibility to bear witness to wider social change; …tend[ing] to legislative policies, changes in public funding, legal proposals, and business practices, with an eye for protecting the most vulnerable in our society.” (Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, p. 99.) Church members advocate on behalf of the poor and marginalized.
But the most effective strategy and goal for the long term is empowerment of people to address their own issues. This is most effectively done through community organizing. We organize block units and a board of local neighbors to make it all work. This naturally leads to more issues identification. Citizens are brought together to research issues, mobilize more support, and confront decision makers to get the changes needed. As a result perhaps the city puts resources into demolition of unsafe buildings, closing drug houses, or packaging land for re-developers in partnership with local leaders. Organizing might address transportation, health care, education, or other identified issues, whether at the very local (micro) level, at regional or state (mezzo) levels, or national or global (macro) levels. If you think about it, a religious denomination IS a community organization. So, the institutional questions are, “For what is it organized?” and “Does that need to change?” "How might we better turn our church outreach work over to residents of our community?"
Both mercy ministry (giving, volunteering, direct services, personal development) and justice ministry (community development, justice advocacy and organizing) are necessary.. Mercy alone is not enough. All of this is part of what we mean by “evangelism.” People want to participate in a church which is doing what they believe a church ought to do. We ‘make disciples’ by engaging them in mercy and justice ministry. Many churches are finding they grow in number and spirit through outreach ministry. Where are you and your church on this continuum?
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