Does your church reach into the community ?

[BlackCalvinist]

I've seen some churches - both with sound doctrine and some without - that simply 'exist' in their communities. Their members come from elsewhere, they hardly ever seek to (in some cases, DON'T) bring people in from the local community, do anything for the local community, etc....

Does your church do anything in the community it is located in ?

Why or why not ?

 

[Herald]

We have regular visitation and door to door ministry. Why? Because if we wait for people to seek us out we'll be waiting a loooooooong time.

 

[Davidius]

I've seen some churches - both with sound doctrine and some without - that simply 'exist' in their communities. Their members come from elsewhere, they hardly ever seek to (in some cases, DON'T) bring people in from the local community, do anything for the local community, etc....

Does your church do anything in the community it is located in ?

Why or why not ?

That's sort of how our congregation is. Most drive ~30 minutes or more and it's hard to organize church activities.

 

[JonathanHunt]

The other elder is a farmer and he lives 13 miles away which is quite a distance in British terms. Think of how long it would take you to drive that on good big american roads and then double it.

I live about 2-3 miles from the church. Our town is quite small so you can get from any point to any other in about 10 mins traffic permitting.

Our problem is demographic, most members/attenders are older and not so able to 'go forth' and do things. We distributed 1000 calendars to the community at christmas with invitations. I hope that we shall begin to distribute evangelistic magazines at some point. When I get a distribution going, I can usually only count on 2 or 3 others to help.

I may Godwilling do some street evangelism (I prefer it to invading people's homes especially in our culture) and I have beguin to support the open air ministry of another church - but that is inviting people to the other church, of course.

We'd love to do some outreach for children especially, but I haven't got the people. Its a big prayer point for us!

 

[Pilgrim]

We are a small church plant that is weighing options for reaching out to the community. I think they mailed out something last year to households in the area. Going door to door here is really not an option as it is prohibited in many areas.

 

[jaybird0827]

We hold afternoon services at a local assisted care facility on the first Lord's Day of every month.

 

[Galatians220]

We are trying: just on Thursday, July 3, we were mentioned in an article about small churches: Small churches use variety of ways to attract new members | hometownlife.com | the Observer & Eccentric Newspapers, Mirror Newspapers and Hometown Weeklies.

This article was in a paper that will reach upwards of 100,000 people, at the very least. We'll welcome anyone in whom it piques interest.

We hope to reach everyone who has an interest in the real Gospel and hearing Christ exalted, regardless of where they came from. I myself could hardly have come from more dubious or heretical roots... And yet, He was gracious.

Margaret

 

[Southern Presbyterian]

We have regular visitation and door to door ministry. Why? Because if we wait for people to seek us out we'll be waiting a loooooooong time.

Brother Bill, may I inquire as to the details of your visitations? Our particular visitation program as resulted in only 1 person actually ever showing up at the church in about a 12 month period. I know it's not about the numbers, but it is none-the-less discouraging. We knock on folk's doors, introduce ourselves and our church, invite them out to visit, and leave either a sermon on CD or Tape (their choice) and wish them a blessed evening/afternoon. Folks are generally very nice, but as I said, this approach only netted us 1 visitor. Any suggestions to offer or successes to share?

Blessings!

 

[staythecourse]

I am guilty of not doing my part in inviting people to church. Thanks for the post

 

[Guido's Brother]

We've got a Vacation Bible School program, Coffee Break for women, GEMS and Cadets, and a number of other programs. Personally, I preach at a local retirement home a couple of times a month and do a radio program with a local United Reformed pastor. The radio program has generated a lot of interest in our church.

 

[Gryphonette]

Heaps of stuff. Christ Chapel "partners" with the neighborhood middle school and elementary school - and also a bit with the high school, though not quite as much as the need isn't as great there - to help maintain the facilities, volunteer with the kids, support the teaching staff, and so on; plus the church takes part in an annual thing in the poorer areas of town where doctors, dentists, barbers, etc. volunteer and the gospel is preached and invitations to church issued; at the VBS the church picks up and returns home children from one of the projects (such as the Butler Housing Project, only I'm not sure that's still there) so kids who otherwise wouldn't be able to attend, can do so; between going out into the community and hosting events and inviting the community to come in, I can honestly say that for all its faults, Christ Chapel does a better-than-average job of outreach.

 

[ColdSilverMoon]

Our church is extremely involved in the community. Redeemer founded Hope for New York, a collective organization of charities sponsored by the church in cooperation with other churches in the city. So many people volunteer for various organizations (mostly working in homeless shelters and shelters for abused women and children) that there is a waiting list to work. Last year it was ranked one of the best charities in the country by an independent group out of Washington.

www.hfny.org

 

[Herald]

We have regular visitation and door to door ministry. Why? Because if we wait for people to seek us out we'll be waiting a loooooooong time.

Brother Bill, may I inquire as to the details of your visitations? Our particular visitation program as resulted in only 1 person actually ever showing up at the church in about a 12 month period. I know it's not about the numbers, but it is none-the-less discouraging. We knock on folk's doors, introduce ourselves and our church, invite them out to visit, and leave either a sermon on CD or Tape (their choice) and wish them a blessed evening/afternoon. Folks are generally very nice, but as I said, this approach only netted us 1 visitor. Any suggestions to offer or successes to share?

Blessings!

James, let me start my saying that there is no one way to reach out to the community. Door-to-door, county fairs, volunteer work, nursing home visits etc. are all excellent methods of taking the church outside of the four walls mentality. Our visitation has two facets: community door-to-door and visiting those who have visited us. We've had more success with those who have visited us first. Door-to-door has met with spotty success. I think that is normative for most churches. I give God the glory that our local body has been faithful in inviting neighbors, friends and co-workers. We have never lacked for visitors using the latter method. Believe it or not, the internet has been a wonderful tool in attracting visitors. Our church is in the Baltimore/Washington corridor and most of the people here are internet savvy. They take the time to search the net for churches and many of our visitors have been net related. We're also in the phone book and I believe we have a presence in the post newspaper at Ft. Meade (which is less than a mile from our front door).

Don't be discouraged with the lack of response from door-to-door visitation. It's not a high percentage form of community activity but it's not without merit. Consider outreach activities that are tailored to your demographics. Do you have colleges, universities or military bases nearby? There are ways of approaching these venues in order to get the word out. Missions to Military is an organization that reaches out to our armed forces. They are worth contacting if that is something that interests you.

Successes? We've had members come from door-to-door and follow up visits. Our primary plan for growth is to proclaim the word of God in truth and pray that the God brings in His sheep. While that is our primary means of growth we will remain engaged in the community.

 

[raekwon]

Most of our "outreach" into the community is done through our home groups that meet throughout the week. All of the groups meet in locations that are pretty close to where we meet as a church, and folks invite their neighbors and friends. Of course, most people from outside of the church don't just want to show up at someone's house for a Bible study, so the groups usually host some sort of neighborhood social gathering (dinner party, cookout, etc) so folks can get to know eachother.

Ironically enough, my family is farther away from the church than most (even though it's only a 10-15 minute drive . . . many are within walking distance). There are two PCA churches that are closer to us in proximity, but the church we're at is just a better fit for us, and that's where God has called us. I'd really like to get out of the suburbs (at least THESE suburbs) and move closer to the church and the city, but we all know how crappy the housing market is right now.

As far as service to the community goes, we partner with quite a few local organizations in various ways.

 

[fredtgreco]

We are involved, but not nearly to the extent that we hope to be once our building is built. For now, we have:

• VBS in the summer
• we are very involved with local community ministries
• I lead a Bible study for the volunteers at the local Pregnancy Help Center, and one of our families volunteers at another PHC)
• we send volunteers to other ministries (food banks, Katy Christian Ministries).
• One of our elders leads several workdays each year painting and repairing homes of local residents in the "not so suburban" part of town.
• Two familes vist a local nursing home every week and work with the residents
• Several of our dads lead local Boy Scout troops
• We have people in leadership of the two local Homeschool Co-Ops
• We have Financial Peace University opened up to the community several times a year (and this has brought people out, some have come to church, others not)
• We have a regular evangelism program (usually modified EE)
• I am on the board of our local Homeowner's Assoication
• I am scheduled to be on the Board of the Pregnancy Help Center
• One of our deacons has done counseling with people in the community
• I provide some pro-bono legal help for people in the community (reading contracts, helping with bankruptcy issues, real estate matters, etc.)
• One of our families makes a deliberate attempt to consistently frequent the same local businesses, and this has resulted in many opporuntities for evangelism and inviting to church (if you go to the same mom & pop pizza joint/dentist/dry cleaners for a couple of years, and engage in conversations each time, you would be amazed at the results)
• One of our members give music lessons

We could very easily be a typical PCA/OPC/Reformed communter church (it is Houston, after all). But we deliberately choose to be community oriented.

 

[BlackCalvinist]

I've seen some churches - both with sound doctrine and some without - that simply 'exist' in their communities. Their members come from elsewhere, they hardly ever seek to (in some cases, DON'T) bring people in from the local community, do anything for the local community, etc....

Does your church do anything in the community it is located in ?

Why or why not ?

That's sort of how our congregation is. Most drive ~30 minutes or more and it's hard to organize church activities.

Thanks for responding, David Has there been any talk of organizing anything by anyone ?

By the way, folks, thanks for your responses. I'm encouraged.

I'm going to point a few people over to this thread in a bit.....

 

[Davidius]

I've seen some churches - both with sound doctrine and some without - that simply 'exist' in their communities. Their members come from elsewhere, they hardly ever seek to (in some cases, DON'T) bring people in from the local community, do anything for the local community, etc....

Does your church do anything in the community it is located in ?

Why or why not ?

That's sort of how our congregation is. Most drive ~30 minutes or more and it's hard to organize church activities.

Thanks for responding, David Has there been any talk of organizing anything by anyone ?

By the way, folks, thanks for your responses. I'm encouraged.

I'm going to point a few people over to this thread in a bit.....

Ummm, not really. To be honest, I wouldn't go if we did things there regularly or at one of the members' houses. It's just too much time and gas. Originally I started going there because I thought I needed to in order to maintain doctrinal purity. This has become a bothersome issue for me as of late.

 

[jambo]

I find knocking on doors a very good way of outreach as it means you get to talk with one person from every house in the neighbourhood. I have found the best apporach to be going round the doors encouraging people to read the bible for themselves. For those who do not have one we give them a free New Testament, or if they specifically wanted, a whole bible. This gives the opportunity to talk about the bible and some key verses. it also gives the opportunity to call back a week or two later to see how they are getting on. I gave a bible to one man and called back a week later where he told me he started at Genesis and was now at Zephaniah.

Bearing in mind this is Northern Ireland where some areas are totally Catholic and other areas totally Protestant I have always found the Protestant community to be hard, unresponsive, unwilling to talk and either totally uninterested or complacent. On the other hand the Catholic community has been friendly, open, willing to talk and willing to take and read the scriptures. Of course it is very hard for RCs to leave the church or even visit a non-RC church. However one chap in our church had a regular bible study with two guys met on the doors. (there were three but one sadly died several months ago)

It was always our hope that through distributing the scriptures a bible study in someones house would develope which in turn can lead to a new church being planted in that area. This frequently happened in the Irish Republic where over the last 20-30 many new churches were formed from converted RCs. In many many cases converted by the Holy Spirit blessing the reading of the scriptures.

 

[JM]

We go door to door, have services once a month at a nursing home and the regular meetings for youth and teens during the week.

 

[DMcFadden]

Our congregation mirrors almost exactly the demographics of the community (45% Asian, 35% Hispanic, some African-American, and the rest of us White). Our pastor exhorts people to divide their discretionary volunteer time between church and community service and models it himself. The senior pastor and I are quite involved in our local Rotary. Additionally, he serves on the library board, I chair the HUD commission in town and serve on the board of a cooperative ministry networking the churches in the community. We do all of the standard children's programs, youth programs, seniors programs, hosting of AA, housing a couple of other evangelical congregations and a small theological school (all at minimal "rent"), do ESL classes for the community. Our pastor does quite a bit of nursing home ministry and monthly communion for the folks in skilled nursing at my retirement community. He also serves on the board of my ministry.

Actually, for a church our size (450 attendance), we have a really high profile in the community.

 

[Reformed Christian]

Thank you for the question.

We have a "tiny" church and pray continually how to be the most effective in the community.

We are active at every Right to Life event, phone and write letters to elected officials regarding issues of free speech, traditional family/marriage and sanctity of life.

We are active with the Alliance Defense Fund - the Chrisitan legal organization that fights the ACLU on both college campuses and in the courts in the areas mentioned above.

Though not in our "community," we send books to pastors in the Philippines and are praying about a trip soon to visit with them so that we might be an encouragement to them in the ministry.

We are also going through The Truth Project on Wednesday evenings - with several families from other churches - to develop a more biblical worldview.

And today, though under budget, we took up a special offering (of over $1,000 - praise be to God!) to help fight the battle against homosexual marriage in California. Half will go to ADF and ther other half to the Family Research Council. That is not a large amount, but we thank the Lord that he uses our "window's mites."

 

[Ivan]

Our little church has a good deal of involvement. Along with the unusal, Sunday School, Worship, the preaching and teaching of God's Word, VBS, Youth, regular mailouts to the community, door-to-door evangelism, we also have the Boone County Jail Ministry and services at the Rockford Rescue Mission.

We plan to have many more ministries, such as Biblical counseling, Discipleship training, daycare, radio, TV, and Bible college.

Yeah, I know.

 

[Pergamum]

Let me ask, except for small towns, do most towns or cities really have a sense of community nowadays? And most reformed churches are not community churches to begin with but are commuter churches.

How does this affect our "local" outeach, when the locality of the church body is scattered over an hour of driving distance?

 

[Davidius]

Let me ask, except for small towns, do most towns or cities really have a sense of community nowadays? And most reformed churches are not community churches to begin with but are commuter churches.

How does this affect our "local" outeach, when the locality of the church body is scattered over an hour of driving distance?

Trevor,

I would say that it's very damaging both to community within the church and local outreach.

 

[Wannabee]

Once a month at local rehab center
Some personal outreach among members

Overall, we're not doing near enough. When I arrived the guys were just trying to hold on, in a sense. We are going through memory verses to help us to think in evangelism, and plan on doing a series on it next year. But, we can't change overnight. This was a good question, and probably quite convicting for many of us.

I have a dear friend who's been a missionary for about 20 years or so. Their church plant is doing fairly well in spiritual depth, but not numerically. Just a couple of years ago he realized that they had largely stopped "doing the work of an evangelist." It was a sad and convicting realization for them; especially for him, because his prior focus was largely evangelical. This realization brought new life to the church with all members getting more involved in reaching out wherever they are, speaking God's truth in love and ministering in the market, at work, and wherever they're "going." People are visiting the church again, and lives appear to be transforming. May we all recognize our weakness in this area, repent, and proclaim Christ boldly.

 

[Pergamum]

Let me ask, except for small towns, do most towns or cities really have a sense of community nowadays? And most reformed churches are not community churches to begin with but are commuter churches.

How does this affect our "local" outeach, when the locality of the church body is scattered over an hour of driving distance?

Trevor,

I would say that it's very damaging both to community within the church and local outreach.

What's the alternative... or maybe a better question is, "What is the lesser of two evils?"


I know many sovereign grace baptist churches. Their communities do not even know that they exist. But their congregation consists of faithful folks who drive 45 minutes to church to hear the doctrines of grace.

I struggle over whether it is better to stay local and bloom where you are planted or drive a long way to enjoy a more exclusive fellowship (a negative thing) but deeper doctrine. Gotta go where the food is, but also it is an ideal to bless one's community as well.

Plus, I struggle over what is community in the US. When I lived in apts in the US, I never really knew many of my neighbors that well (moved often). Westerners are very individualistic.

Any thoughts?