Should Christians Quit Outreach

9:00 AM Unknown 0 Comments

Spoiler Alert:  This is just my stream of conscious, a few thoughts, not even a suggestion.

I realize that this is probably a somewhat provocative title, maybe a little unsettling for those who feel especially called to do good deeds in the world. “How could our church give up the sandwiches we make for the poor and homeless in our community, or the trip to South America to build a home or an addition to an orphanage, or the $5000 we give each year to the food pantry downtown?”  “Why, this is how our community spends the 10% of our budget, or time, which we earmark for doing the good work that Jesus has called us to do!” Which is why I want to suggest that the Church really needs to abandon the language, which presents outreach as an isolated concept, not outreach itself. 

Establishing structure and governance can provide the organizational framework for ministries and churches to thrive.  There is the added benefit of holding people accountable for decision-making. And so we segregate the work of the church to make sure that all tasks are accomplished.  We hire ministers who are in charge of outreach or pastoral care.  We create outreach ministries that enable people to occasionally engage in opportunities to serve others.

I read an article from the Harvard Business Review (you can read the article here) that articulates quite well that the goal of mission related enterprises shouldn’t be membership, but engagement.  Every year Episcopal churches measure membership by calculating the average Sunday attendance and the amount of money spent in the operating year. Two factors are supposed to report church wellness: money and membership. 

And yet money and membership have never been part of the goal. To quote Ed Bacon, Rector of All Saint’s Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California, “But what really makes our hearts beat fast is transformed people transforming the world. Membership isn’t our business. Turning the human race into the human family is.”[1]  The goal of being Church is not increasing the budget or number of people on Sunday. It is to be a part of the divine work of God that is restoring all people and all things to God’s glory. It is to be a part of helping to build God’s kingdom on this earth.  If we need metrics to assess our success, we could be measuring how our own community is being transformed and how we are part of the transformation of individuals and entire communities.

I wonder if the problem of having explicit outreach programs or an outreach budget, is it establishes a disconnection from the whole mission of the church. I worry outreach then becomes the focus of a handful of people in the community, something that a few do for the benefit of the rest. Instead we should learn how to make all of ministry, everything we are engaged in a part of transforming our lives and the lives of everyone we encounter.  We are called to love God and to love our neighbor with all our heart, mind and soul. These are the greatest commandments given to us.  What if our liturgy, our Christian formation, and our pastoral care shaped our relationships with our neighbors?  Maybe we should drop the whole outreach language so that everything can become outwardly focused.  Isn’t that what the Gospel is really about?