Since we've been discussing the movement of the Church towards mission, let me share some personal experiences from my own pastoral ministry over the past few days.
Our congregation (Central Community Church in Hanford, CA) has been working through this whole missional thing for several months now. This is an exciting church to be part of, as we have gone through some radical changes in the last three years, transitioning from a fairly staid Church of God congregation to one that it is now reaching unchurched people. But, we still struggle to transform our dominant paradigms. Yet, our church leadership is open and committed to continuing in the process of re-focusing the church even further.
But, we're starting to get it. For example, last week during one of our cell group gatherings a woman, who works at a restaurant, was telling us how she frequently comes home with lots of leftovers and doesn't know what to do with them as she has more than she and her husband could ever eat. She's been doing the obvious things, like eating some, freezing some, and giving some to family and friends. But, what came next was exciting for me, the group, and even her. The suggestion offered to her was: Why not take some of it across the street from where she lives to a housing complex and simply knock on some doors and introduce herself as a neighbor and offer some food? This was a radical idea for her, since she has lived in this house for many years but has never met anyone across the street from her. But, suddenly she saw that this could be a way for her to make some connections with people outside the church. It opened up a paradigm shift to her, and to others in attendance.
To further challenge us toward mission, Sunday evening we showed Reggie McNeal's NAC sermon. It was very well received, and certainly provoked a number to look at the church 's mission differently than before. We are following up with a congregational discussion this coming Sunday to further lead our church towards mission.
I know that my experiences over the past few days are just a very small snippet of what God is doing elsewhere. I'd love to hear how you are coming to terms with mission in your church. Please pass along your own stories by leaving a Comment, or by posting on your own blog and leaving a link in my Comments.
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5 comments:
great "house to house" strategy coming out of the cell group. that is also how we're trying to reach our neighborhood here in north Alabama -- not door to door, but house to house
apparently that was a part of the church of acts ministry strategy as it is said in Acts 5:42, "Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ"
and Paul says it again in Acts 20:20, "You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house"
meeting people and their needs where they are is continuation of Jesus' incarnational ministry.
so does anyone have any good "walmart to walmart" strategies? because that's where the people are :)
update on our first "house to house" experience is on my blog at this address:
http://servelovepray.blogspot.com/2005/08/sending-out-10.html
(someone will have to teach me how to use HTML tags more effectively) ;)
let me see if this code is correct to make a link: 10sent
Thanks for sharing your strategies with us! We look forward to learning from your experiences.
I'm so glad that people are starting to get it in both of your churches. Gloria de Dios! [ Sorry sometimes my clutch slips. ] So it begins.
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