Organic Outreach For Churches
by Kevin Harney
Book recommendation by Julie Young, 2018
You should read this book! After going to the Organic Outreach training session a few weeks ago, I couldn't wait to read this book. Here is some of what stood out for me, but there were so many good ideas, you really should get a copy and read it for yourself.
“Outreach should be the heartbeat of every church. It should never be an afterthought. The only way outreach will become a natural part of a congregation’s life is when every leader and each ministry are gripped by a commitment to fulfil the Great Commission. God gives us a great opportunity to share in his work, and we miss an important and essential part of God’s call on our lives if we don’t share the good news of Jesus.”
By chapter two Kevin had put into words what I had been thinking about for years but hadn’t managed to put into words; why Christians aren’t ambassadors like they should be. I got stuck thinking about his ideas for days and couldn’t read on. He said that most pastors that he interviewed could answer yes to his first two critical questions and get stuck on the third, but I really wonder if we can truly say yes to the first two.
“Question 1: Does your church believe, honour and follow the teachings of the Bible?”
Me: Do our people really know that God has called every believer to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, and deny themselves and take up their cross to live the calling he has called us to?
“Question 2: Does your church love people and long for them to know Jesus?”
Me: Do they? Do they really? Do they really care that most of the people in their community and the community around their church don’t have a church going friend and therefore are not ever likely to hear the good news of Jesus and be able to become friends with God?
Apparently, most pastors Kevin interviewed got stuck at number 3 which was “Are the people in your church willing to sacrifice to the point they will joyfully embrace change?”
Me: As I said, I’m really not sure we can truly say yes to the first two questions yet. I think we need to start with them.
Kevin gives many Biblical references in this book and in Organic Outreach for Ordinary People that could be used to help explain God's heart and Christians' calling and responsibility.
In chapter three Kevin highlights how important it is for the church to love itself so that it is a welcoming family, not a bickering unhappy one.
Chapter four described the Seven Simple Mind Shifts That Unlock Outreach Potential and is well worth the read.
1. Churches need to approach outreach strategically and never haphazardly; we don’t expect any ministry to just happen, so don’t expect this of outreach.
2. Churches must fund outreach as a high priority.
3. People must be welcome in our churches to belong before they come to believe.
4. Energy, time and resources need to be invested in serving those who are not yet part of our church family.
5. Seeking God in prayer is vital if we expect him to transform lives.
6. Churches need to move from theologically mushy beliefs to absolute confidence that God’s word is true.
7. Churches need to step forward in faith and not get discouraged.
As for chapter five, Kevin put words to lots of my frustrations; “felt the uphill battle to convince others to participate”; “subtle resistance to outreach”. Then he introduced how evangelism in our churches can move forward…. the whole church capturing the heart of evangelism and pumping with the heart of God. The main idea that has revolutionized the churches Kevin has helped, is that every ministry leader forms the core team that leads evangelistically in the church. Four times a year this group of leaders gets together, and each person shares how they are going individually, and how their ministry is doing evangelistically. Kevin suggests that every person and ministry aims to increase their evangelistic temperature by a degree (scale of one to ten - explained in chapter 7). Wherever they are at now, they should aim to be one degree hotter and make plans for how they will do this. Between these meetings he suggests that groups of these leaders meet to encourage each other and possibly discover how their groups could help each other or do something together. He also suggests that the key person who leads the whole group leader meetings (could be the pastor or someone with a heart for evangelism) meets with each ministry leader individually between meetings to keep encouraging them individually and help them think about how they can encourage and lead their teams regarding being more evangelistic. Each ministry should have evangelism as a priority, discussing it monthly including in every planning meeting, talking about how the ministry is going, what it could do to increase its temperature, and how each individual’s temperature is going.
In chapter eight Kevin suggests that a church tweaks what they are already doing so instead of just serving those within the church, include those in the wider community. He calls this the Two-Degree Rule. One example he shared was how a church which was great at making meals for church people in times of need, also helped those in the wider community. New ministries don’t have to be invented, although they can be, to reach out into the community; you can just tweak the ministries you already have. Kevin gives questions and ideas for where to research if you want a new idea.
Kevin gives so many other good ideas, here are just a few.
Where there is a roadblock to vision and passion, we must identify it, overcome it, and get the outreach momentum moving again.
A church needs to run evangelistic events of different intensity: enough low-key events that the community doesn’t think you’re weird and avoids you, but enough with the gospel presented that people actually learn about Jesus and can be invited to be his friend, and other things in-between that enable relational links and conversations.
Every Christian should be able to present the gospel: God loves us, our (humans) problem, God’s solution, our response (choice).
I highly recommend that you read this book. It could be your church's game changer.