The Foundational Question of Christian Outreach
“To whom are you sending me?”
The following is Part One of an excerpt from my talk at the FXUM National Gathering last week. Fresh Expressions are new forms of church that connect with spiritually open people who are not a part of Sunday morning church. Learn more about Fresh Expressions in my recent article for Resource UMC.
A healthy fresh expression begins with Listening to God.
I’ve been in the church-based community engagement world for over 15 years now and I have seen some stuff. Some good stuff, but also stuff that makes me real uncomfortable—some stuff that makes me understand why Jesus was so harsh with religious institutionalists. One of the things that I’ve seen is that much of our outreach is done without any conversation with God.
We see our pews emptying, we run demographic reports based on consumer reporting, and learn how some of our neighbors consume, and we start something based on those reports. Even in the more wholistic models of community assessment where we do asset mapping and talk to our neighbors, more often than not we fail to involve God in the conversation.
So what could it look like to listen to God as we start fresh expressions?
The Practice of Discernment
We can call the act of listening to God spiritual discernment. In discernment we ask questions of God and we listen for the answers. The answers can come from many places: from trusted siblings in Christ, spiritual mentors, the audible voice of God, God speaking through scripture, the things that keep us up at night, the thoughts we can’t get out of our heads, spiritual journaling, or meditation. There are many ways to ask questions of God and listen for the answers.
One of the foundational questions we ask of God when starting fresh expressions is, “To whom are you sending me?” We see this in the Book of Acts. The early followers of Jesus are constantly being sent to new places and new people, to heal and to share the Good News of Jesus.
Willie Jennings writes in his commentary on the book of Acts,
“Where the Spirit of God is, there is divine desire not simply for God but for one another and not simply for one another but for those to whom we are sent by the Spirit, to those already being drawn into communion with God and sensing the desire for God for the expansion of their lives into the lives of others.”
The Book of Acts shows us a pattern of ministry: God prepares a person or people to receive the Good News, God sends an apostle to that person or people to proclaim the Good News, and a Christian community forms around and among that person or people. We see this pattern with the Ethiopian, Saul, Cornelius, and Lydia.
Today, as you read this newsletter, God is at work with a person or group of people preparing them to receive the Good News. Whether it’s the people on your block, people who are struggling with mental illness, medieval reenactors, people with addictions, asylum-seekers, new moms, parents of young adults with special needs, gamers and geeks, married couples, men who are isolated, or a group of people you are yet to encounter, God is present among them, revealing God’s self, placing a desire within their hearts, preparing them for you.
Our part as fresh expressions leaders is to open our hearts, our eyes, and our ears to the Holy Spirit’s lead. To be ready when God calls us to go. To continue the work God has already started.
My “Who”
In the first fresh expression I started at King Street Church (KSC), I was directed by my pastor to focus on a geographical location: downtown Boone. As I spent my time downtown, God opened up doors into the underground punk rock scene. It had not been my scene—I’m not that cool—but I went nonetheless. And I found God at work there in the raw vulnerability, the communal expression of joy and pain. Every time I went to a show, I’d have spiritual conversations.
As I led KSC for 6 years, our “who” changed. We were literally called to start a fresh expression at the homeless shelter, the volunteer chaplain there had moved and the staff called me and asked us to set up a regular presence there. Then the jail asked for volunteers to visit the inmates regularly, so we went. When these two gatherings took shape our eyes were opened to our neighbors reentering the community after incarceration. And that’s where our “who” remained until I was reappointed.
When my wife and I and our then one year old, moved to the suburbs of Charlotte in 2019, my context shifted from the pub to the playground. I began meeting dads who were hungry for community and looking for things to do with their kids on the weekends. So my daughter and I started Who Let the Dads Out.
When we moved to another suburb of Charlotte two years ago, after getting priced out of our housing, my wife and I began to meet parents of young children like us who are spiritually hungry, so we’ve started a house church where the kids outnumber the adults.
In each context, I’ve asked God, “To whom are you sending me?”
How About You?
Listening to God is the inner work of starting a fresh expression. It requires slowing down, talking with God, being honest about our inner motivations, being attentive to the Spirit’s stirring. It can’t be rushed and it can’t be forced.
To whom is God sending you? You might already have a sense of this. You might have no clue. You might be in a season where your “who” is changing. Wherever you are, be open to the voice of God who is always drawing us to a person or a people in need of healing, guidance, and love.
In Part Two we’ll explore what to do next. Hint: It’s listen to your neighbors.