Want to reach new people? Start new ministries!

It takes new ministries to reach new people.

Bringing Jesus to our communities – seeing children discover virtue, couples honor marriage, the hungry employed and fed, former victims empowering others to live abundant lives and a new song of hope being sung in the hearts of our neighbors  – requires that Christ followers be in the community and meet the needs of people who have not yet experienced God’s love.  No church can meet every need.  Every church can rediscover and reconnect with the people in its community who are not being reached with the gospel, and develop at least one new ministry to do so.

Start by discovering the people and articulating the needs that exist all around you.   First, to whom are you ministering right now?  What are your current ministries doing to demonstrate the love of Christ to your community?  Second, how effective are the ministries you have created - are they growing and expanding in their ability to touch hearts beyond the walls of your church?  Third, what kind of people live in your community that are not part of your church?  Maybe there are people from an age group, socio-economic, ethnic, or cultural sub-group that is common in your area but not common in your church.  What do they need?  What can you supply?  Fourth, what are people in your area saying they need but not getting?  Maybe it’s safety in the midst of increased violence, or activity for youth in a town where boredom prevails, a place for seniors or mothers with preschoolers to gather and swap stories, singles looking for safe places to meet others and explore faith issues, immigrants needing to feel welcomed or economically equipped by someone, or divorcees needing a place to learn to cope and move beyond the pain, etc.  There’s bound to someone in need, ignored by most, that you can love at least.

You might find that you’re doing great ministry easily expanded to another similar group of people with good impact. For example, an annual 3-on-3 basketball tournament for teens (that includes witnessing opportunities) might be expanded to include a basketball camp for elementary age kids.  You might discover that your VBS has been diminishing over the past few years, a good ministry but growing less effective, and choose to offer half-day soccer camp with prayer opportunities, half-time Bible stories, and literature distribution about soccer, health and spiritual hope in Christ to parents when they visit the last day soccer exhibition.

Noticing the make-up of your church, and the make-up of your community, you might begin to brainstorm new ways to bring Jesus to folks who are near you but not yet in church.  Find a way to converse with people and ask things like “what is your hope for this community?” or “if a church were to be a real help to you, what would that look like?” or “what can we do together to make a difference around here?”  Soon, you might find a group of people with a few needs that just maybe your church could do something about.

Identify a group your church could bless.  Identify multiple ways that your church could bless that group.  Settle on the best means to do so given your church’s mission, passion, strengths, resources and the articulated and real needs of the community you have discovered.  Gary McIntosh in “Here Today, Here Tomorrow” (Wesleyan Publishing House, 2010) suggests making a list something like this...

Name of Group

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V

Potential Ministry    

Potential Ministry

Potential Ministry   

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V

Best Ministry Option

Such an list might lead to an idea for a new ministry to reach new people.  There could be singles, or immigrants from Croatia, junior-high youth identified as not in church but all around town.  A church might decide it has best experience in working with youth and teens and want to build on this.

Junior High Kids

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youth sunday school  

skate park

annual soccer camp  

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Soccer Camp

With renewed focus on Junior High youth, the church brainstorms ways to reach this group.  Though many church leaders have taught Sunday School, attendance has been in steady decline and they decide doing the same thing to produce different results is a dead end.  Many youth interviewed talked about being bored, and their parents desired more productive things for the kids to do, especially during the summer.  A skate park came up often but as it needed regular monitoring and major funds to build it right, it was thought to be out of current reach for the congregation.  A couple of motivated college athletes in the church, and connections with the local park district staff gave momentum to the possibility that the church could develop a high quality, time-specific, very participant affordable, soccer camp. The camp would meet a need for the youth and give an opportunity for youth evangelism and family assimilation into the church.

Without new wine skins, there is no new wine.

Start something new!  It takes new ministries to reach new people.  Let’s bring Jesus to our communities!  Let’s make contact!