A Church That Makes An Impact
If local law enforcement launched an investigation in your community looking for evidence of your church’s existence, what clues would they find? If they dusted your neighborhood for fingerprints, would they find proof of your church’s impact there? Would it be evident in restored marriages and reconciled relationships? Would it be evident in the number of people who have found freedom from addictions? Would it be visible in the way your church members flock to help the hurting and offer hope to the hopeless? How is your church leaving its fingerprints on the community?
New Life Christian Church, Passion for Planting’s home base, is focused on making disciple who make disciples. One thing we know that disciples do is serve their neighbors. That’s why we started Passion for Community, a non-profit ministry which helps people transition out of homelessness into permanent housing. We also run a community sport facility called the nZone which offers the community a safe place to connect, exercise, and experience God.
When church leaders visit the nZone, they are amazed at all we’re able to do with the space. Many begin to dream about how they could replicate its ministry in their community. However, before they get too excited and start developing plans to do this, we remind them of the years we spent serving our community in much smaller ways before we tackled a huge project like building and running a sports complex. For years we hosted backyard VBS’s and added value to community events by bringing sno cones, popcorn, games, and a bounce house. We believed if we were faithful with little, we would be faithful with much.
Are you wondering how your church can leave its fingerprints on your community? We encourage you to wrestle with that question, so more people in your neighborhood can hear, see, and experience the good news of Jesus. To help you do so, we’ve filled this month’s newsletter with resources to help your church leave its mark on the community.
-Patrick Bradley, Director of Operations
April 2022 – Contents
- Sample Outreach Ideas
- Outreach Strategy Template
- Discovering Needs
- Church Planter Training
Sample Outreach Ideas
Do you remember when Covid-19 forced us to stay at home and keep our distance from people when venturing out to get essentials like milk and toilet paper? For some introverts this was an answer to prayer, but for most people it was torture. All the physical distancing and time away from friends and loved ones wreaked havoc upon our well-being.
We longed for the pandemic to be over, so we could return to some sense of normalcy and not live in fear of contracting and spreading a deadly virus. Now with those fears dissipating, we must relearn the art of gathering and living in community. People are hungry for it. Your church can lead the way. For ideas on how to do this, continue reading.
Outreach Strategy Template
If you’re a church planter, one of your responsibilities is not only to serve your neighbors, but to inspire and equip others to do it as well. As a leader, you get to challenge your team members to serve their neighbors in a way that creates energy, excitement, and momentum for the church plant. This requires planning on your part, so all your outreach activities and energy are pointed in the same direction.
To discover more about how to develop an Outreach Strategy for your church keep reading.
Discovering Needs and Opportunities
Frederick Buechner once said, “The place God calls you is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” Many church planters resonate with Buechner here because of the deep sense of calling they feel to reach a specific city or region for Christ. They feel a sense of ownership for the spiritual well-being of their city and can’t wait to start laying the groundwork for a new church. However, before they do that, we always advise planters to study their city like Paul did when he traveled to Athens in Act 17.
Before Paul preached the gospel in Athens, he observed its culture and identified its idols, so he could help his listeners see how their longing for the divine could only be satisfied in Christ. He did his homework on the city so he could contextualize the gospel (What is contextualization? Read Ed Stetzer’s Insights From Keller on Contextualization). Church planters today will benefit from following Paul’s example. What are some practical ways you can study your context and better serve your community? Find out how in the Send Network’s article How To Discover Needs In Your Community.
Church Planter Training
If your church has a desire to multiply, you’ve probably wondered how you’re going to do it. You don’t have the time or energy to create a church planter training program because you have an entire church to lead, right? That’s why we’ve developed our Church Planter Boot Camp (May 9-13) and Church Planter Distance Residency to equip leaders to start healthy multiplying churches. You raise up a leader and we’ll train them in the nuts and bolt of church planting.
Through these training opportunities participants learn from experienced church planters, build relationships with other planters, and develop contextualized strategies for planting a healthy, multiplying church. Learn more about these training opportunities here: Boot Camp and Distance Residency Program. We are NOW taking applications for the Fall 2022 Distance Residency Cohort, so email us today to reserve your spot!