Perspectives in Church Planting #3 – Outreach

Perspectives on Church Planting – Outreach

By Daniel Fusco

 

At the time of this writing (March 2009), it has been about a year and a half since I began the Calvary Church Planting Network.  I began the ministry as a resource to church planters.  I saw the need for the ministry based on my personal experiences as a young church planter.  Having planted two churches in the past six years, one on each coast, both in decidedly anti Christian areas, I began to see that there was a need to fill in an educational and relational gap for church planters.  Having grown up in a ministry context that was simply ‘see a need, meet a need’, I took it upon myself to begin to compile resources, write articles, and put up a website and blog to have information on the web for church planters.  Now a year and a half later, I am even more convinced of the necessity of this ministry.  Since we began, I have corresponded with literally hundreds of church planters (via email, telephone, and sometimes in person) and potential church planters who have contacted me through the website..  I find it a great privilege to be able to encourage, pray, and be involved in these men’s lives.  These men have picked up their lives and families and heeded the call to see new transformational Christian communities established.  Oftentimes they are working full time to keep their families going while trying to see a church get going (which easily translates into 70+ hour work weeks) all the while being many miles away from their personal support base.  Over these last 18 months or so, in talking to men from all over the place, I’ve found that certain themes have emerged as major areas of discussion.  My hope is that over the next month or so, to write a series of articles called Perspectives on Church Planting.  Some of the major themes of discussions that I’ve had with church planters, and have pondered/experienced myself, are understanding your context, the necessity of being ‘called’, how to deal with church attendance, understanding your context, actually doing outreach with a small church, the need for pastoral fellowship, and the need for delegation, casting vision, and leader development.  I’m hoping to write articles on these topics individually, as well as anything else that seems pertinent. 

 

So for our third installment of these Perspectives on Church Planting, let’s take a look at ‘Outreach’.

 

The critical mistake that many church planters make is that they think that God’s calling on their lives equals a ‘successful’ plant.  Planters think that since God is calling them to an area that they will simply show up, put up a sign, and people will flock into the building because they are ready to teach the Bible.  Oftentimes people get the false impression that if you simply teach the Word, people will flock into a new church.  This may be true if you are planting a church in the middle of a full on revival, but in reality, in 2009, there aren’t too many place in the United States that are in the middle of a full on revival.  Effective church planters need to do outreach to meet people so that they can come to the building to hear that Word of God.  This was brought into focus for me when I was speaking to one of the older pastors in the Calvary Chapel movement.  This pastor was there in the beginning of the Jesus Movement.  He told me that not only was the Pastor Chuck Smith’s teaching anointed, but there was also a ton of outreach going on.  There were concerts and Christian communes.  There were outreach studies going on in schools, homes, and by the side of the road.  Greg Laurie was inventing new cartoon tracks and they were being handed out.  Teaching tapes were being given out.  There were people, outside of the church building, meeting people with the intention of communicating the Gospel to them.  A successful church plant is one that is reaching out to their community.  When the people who are reached come to the church, then they will get the opportunity to hear God’s inspired Word.

 

I’ve already written an article entitled, “Wisdom from Mark Driscoll” where I exegete a simple statement that he wrote in one of his books.  In speaking of outreach, he asked three simple questions: Who are you reaching out with?  Who are you reaching out to?  And how are you reaching out?  Feel free to read that article to see the finer points of these questions.  But to begin our discussion, these questions are important.  Who are you reaching out with?  Is it just you?  Do you have a small team?  A large group?  The answer to this question will affect the scope of our outreach.  Who are you reaching out to?  Depending on whom we are trying to reach, this will color the style of outreach.  In the Jesus Movement, Christian concerts worked well, but might not in every context.  This speaks to the need for cultural exegesis and understanding our target communities.  This is where statistics and demographics can be incredibly helpful.  Do we love the community that we are called to as Jesus does in such a way as to understand them?  Finally, how are you reaching out?  This is the culmination of the first two questions.  When we understand who we are reaching out with and who we are reaching out to, then we can formulate an action plan as to how we are going to reach out.  It is this third section that I want to spend some time on.

 

Have A Plan

 

It is simply wisdom to have a goal and that can be executed.  If we have a plan and set some goals, we will have a better chance of accomplishing anything.  So I always recommend that church planters come up with a plan, no matter how basic it may be.  Set some goals and work towards their fulfillment.

 

Don’t be Seeker Sensitive, Be Seeker Sensible

 

I don’t know who coined this pithy phrase, but I like it.  We need to be sensible to the people that we are trying to reach and the message that we are giving out.  This is important because oftentimes our outreach ideas are not relevant to the people we are trying to reach.  We have a tendency to import an outreach strategy that we saw used in another context.  We need to be sensible.  There is nothing worse then investing time and energy into something that isn’t sensible.

 

 

The Gospel is Free; But Getting It Out is NOT Cheap

 

We need to spend money on outreach.  This may seem like a no-brainer, but it isn’t.  It seems that oftentimes we would rather spend our money on anything else other than reaching people for the Gospel.  We would rather spend money on the building a church (building) than building the church (community).  Are we more concerned with getting ourselves a salary our reaching our community?  Getting the Gospel out in our community will cost money and we should be prepared for this.  It is money well spent (as long as we are mindful of who we are trying to reach).

 

It’s The Slow Drip That Works

 

What I mean by this is simply that it’s the cumulative effect of all the outreach attempts that work.  We are apt to judge the effectiveness of an outreach based on immediate fruit.  But in a church plant, it is the entire breadth of outreach that will have the effect.  A continued outreach initiative, over time, will be effective.  So have a broad view of it.  Think about it, how many times have you heard about something before you try it?  Like a restaurant?  Oftentimes you’ll see an advertisement or two, maybe a billboard, then you’ll hear of a few people who went there and then you’ll try it.  Churches are the same way.  After someone gets used to seeing your name, if they know someone who likes it, often they will try it.

 

Put Your Name and Logo On Everything

 

This is the simplest outreach style.  I call it ‘passive outreach’.  To simply get name recognition, you want to put your logo, name, and website on everything: handbills, t-shirts, pens, everything.  If you put your branding on everything, eventually people will notice you.  As a Calvary Chapel pastor, if I am driving through a town and I see a dove, I instantly know what that means.  There is recognition of the name and symbol.  In our towns, if no one ever heard of us, there is a good chance that they are not stopping by for a visit. 

 

Maintain A Good Website (and keep your name in the Yellow Pages)

 

In the technologically obsessed United States, it is criminal not to have a strong web presence.  We are really shooting ourselves in the foot if we are not all over the web.  Simply google your community and see what comes up.  Put your name everywhere.  On every community website that you can.  The internet is here to stay and we want to be a part of it.  People still use the Yellow Pages as well.  Make sure your name is in the Yellow Pages.  Also, don’t forget that you can negotiate with the Yellow Pages salesman.  That we have in the Yellow Pages was being offered at $120 per month and we settled on $30 per month.  That’s an extra $90 for other outreach ideas.

 

Train The Congregation in Community Engagement

 

Jesus’ outreach style was to train up twelve apostles.  Jesus knew that having thirteen points of contact (Himself plus the twelve) would be more effective than it just being Himself.  As we are teaching the people the Word, we need to be constantly raising up people who are effective witnesses on their jobs, while at school, as they recreate and the like.  I am constantly downloading outreach sensibilities to the congregation as we walk through the Scriptures together.

 

Finally, The Church Will Be Passionate About What The Pastor Is Passionate About

 

Brothers, if we are not passionate about the lost, neither will the folks in our fellowship be.  Just as Jesus reproduced Himself spiritually in His disciples, so will we.  If our hearts do not burn for the lost, then we will never inspire them to care enough to share.  Brothers, do we have a passion for the souls of men?  Is it a passion that will drive us out of the safety of our offices and studies and into the places where people congregate to them won for Christ?  A church planter without an outreach passion is not a church planter.