Home Outreach Leaders Articles for Outreach & Missions 6 Plumblines for Community Engagement

6 Plumblines for Community Engagement

Plumbline #2: “People are the mission.”

Community-serving outreach projects are not just ends in themselves, but are catalysts for helping our people form relationships within segments of society they normally may not come into contact with.

We know the greatest need of people in our community is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It would be both a dereliction of duty and cruel to not make their salvation our ultimate goal. This does not mean our love is conditional upon their openness to our message, just that any attempt to relieve human suffering that does not also consider “eternal suffering” is shortsighted and un-Christian.

Making disciples is at the core of our calling. So we set up each of our projects with this end in mind, and encourage our people to not make their project a foray into the community in which they do a random act of kindness and rush back to their lives.

One of my greatest joys as a pastor has been seeing these relationships take place. It all began with our relationship with one elementary school principal.

Last year, we had 17 households move together out of a wealthier neighborhood into an under-resourced one so they could incarnate the gospel. Each week, I see these families sitting together, usually with people from that neighborhood. I see small groups sitting together with rehabilitating prisoners they have incorporated into their group, and others with unwed mothers, refugees or at-risk teens. 

Again, I am not saying that we only serve people to convert them. We serve them whether or not they ever show any interest in the gospel, and the good we do for them is a good, God-pleasing end in itself. But if what we believe about the gospel is true, we can never be satisfied to put shoes on their feet when their soul is in jeopardy.

Each of us as pastors must consider: Are our church members effective at making disciples on a personal, one-on-one level? Are we?

If not, stop thinking about getting involved in the community and focus on that. Because until we are good at that, we should not be inserting ourselves into the community. After we do that, community engagement will come naturally. We have to get good at making disciples again. ‘Making disciples’ is at the core of every other ministry in which we engage.