Putting the “Out” in Outreach

• Posted on sdgale
• in 'CHOP Talk' Blog
• on September 18, 2012
• 1 Comment.

A member of my local congregation recently hinted to me that our church does not have enough outreach. His comment was not critical so much as zealous.  His heart was for the gospel of the kingdom, the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ.

As I listened to this church member it became apparent what he meant by outreach.  He talked mainly in terms of events, those planned occasions for inviting people to the church facility where they would have opportunity to hear the gospel.

It got me thinking. One, about the approach of the church in general. Two, about the mentality of my church in particular.

The primary passage of the Bible mandating outreach is Matthew 28:18-20, commonly referred to as “The Great Commission.”

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

The risen Christ tossed the rock of His kingdom authority into the waters of this present age, sending ripples of responsibility for the generations to come.  We are to make disciples, ones who will bow the knee before the Lord Jesus, following Him and serving His kingdom.  We are to proclaim the good news of the kingdom that sin is conquered, and to call others to bow the knee in repentance and faith before King Jesus.

This Great Commission informs us that we are not merely to make converts. We are to make disciples (cf. Luke 9:23), ones who learn at the feet of Jesus and grow to become like Him.  Disciples are grown in the womb of the covenant community into which they are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Where do we find these potential disciples?  We encounter them as we go.  Matthew 28:19 is better expressed, “in your going make disciples.”  It is as we travel about in the ordinary pathways of daily life that we encounter others for the sake of the gospel.

These pathways are our life-spheres. They serve as our spheres of influence, arenas of life in which God has providentially placed us, where we operate and have contacts, and where we have special opportunity to influence others for Christ. We might think of our family, our neighborhood, place we work, the park in which we play, and so on.

By “outreach” many think in terms of inviting people in.  But outreach in Christ’s design primarily takes place out not in.  It is true we are to be an inviting church where we attract those outside the church to attend worship and events.

Sunday services where God is worshiped as transcendent in glory yet present in grace, where the truth of God is honored and taught can have a powerful effect on a visitor.  By the work of the Holy Spirit “the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you” (1 Cor. 14:25).   Seminars on hot button topics can bring a biblical worldview to bear.  Christmas cantatas can attract crowds.

But the staple for outreach is not by being an inviting church.  It is by being faithful as an invading church, where the equipped people of God are scattered in their life-spheres in the name of Christ.

We might put it this way: the primary outreach of a church to claim souls for the King is not by inviting outsiders to the army base. The church’s primary outreach is carried out through its infantry in the field.  There they are instruments, ambassadors, apologists in the hand of the Spirit of the risen Christ.  Through them the Spirit subdues others to Christ and delivers them from the perishing kingdom of darkness to the everlasting kingdom of light and life.

These recruits find themselves conscripted to kingdom cause.  They join the ranks of the infantry of the church militant, engaged with the gospel in their own life-spheres, equipped with words of life.  And so the kingdom of God will grow to fill the earth with the knowledge of the true and living God.