Mistakes In Outreach
Steve Sjogren
#1. Not fishing often enough.
Jesus said Peter would become a fisher of men as he followed in the kingdom. Fishing is what you and I have also been called to. Not going fishing often enough can be a mistake we easily make. That is, making the mistake of not being out in the community often enough. It’s all about frequency. To not go into the community frequently is the fastest way to fail at outreach.
My discovery is that we need to go out in an organized way over an extended time in order that adequate momentum will be generated. How long does it take for this momentum to be stirred up? Go out weekly for six months. Go out with your team once a week for six months–that’s 26 times in a row–and just watch what happens. Planting any sort of kingdom seed takes time to bear fruit. Some seeds sprout faster than others. Outreach seeds tend to be slower in coming up and showing fruitfulness. Servant Evangelism in particular bears fruit a lot like a crop of asparagus. Asparagus takes a while to produce a crop. Other crops pop up soon but then fade away just as quickly. But once its shoots begin to come up through the ground it produces fruit for years to come. It’s a long-term vegetable.
So it is with Servant Evangelism. Launch it. Persevere with it. Keep going out to serve. Show up no matter what. Receive from God an indomitable spirit.
Mistake #2. Not trying to catch an adequate variety of fish.
Typical human nature encourages us to reach out only to those who are like us…to those who look like us, who live in houses similar to ours, who work at places similar to where we work. God, on the other hand, is a fan of variety. On the first day of the Church’s history, the Day of Pentecost, God saw to it that the single people group of the Semitic Jews were joined by thirteen people groups from all over the world. In other words, God likes diversity a LOT! If we hope to connect with God is doing in outreach, we need to reach out to lots of different kinds of people.
We need to try numbers of different approaches to outreach if we hope to make an adequate impact on our community.
When I go fishing I’m not so much in love with fishing itself even though we call it that. What I’m really after is CATCHING! My guess is you are like that as well. If you aren’t catching anything you are just a knucklehead standing next to the water holding a pole! It is catching that causes it all to make sense.
When it comes to catching I’m not all that picky about what I hook and land. After all, I am a fisherman. I’m not a troutman nor am I a bassman or a catfishman.
God is in love with all sorts of people. He wants to use you to reach out to a variety of people, not just one kind. The of the primary marks of God’s favor upon your church is that it will attract a variety of different kinds of people. Different kinds of people falling in love with Jesus. To only focus on those like us, in a word, is boring. Let’s spice it up. Let’s embrace the entire city.
Mistake #3. Outreach without simultaneously listening to the Holy Spirit.
If we hope to succeed in outreach it is essential that we walk in a spirit of prayer. We need an acute awareness of what the Spirit is doing in order to be effective in reaching out to others.
It is easy to emotionally bifurcate the task of evangelism into a doing part and a spiritual part. We can mistakenly conclude that effective outreach is merely backed up by supporting prayer. It’s as we pray while we walk out evangelism that great things happen. Unless we pray we are going to miss a large part of what God is doing right under our noses.
Paul says, we are to “keep in step with the Spirit” as we do life and ministry. I like those two words, “in step.” Following in line with the Holy Spirit is something active. To do that we need to pray AS we serve others.
What’s up with seeing then understanding what God is doing? I believe it’s not difficult to discern what God is up to, at least it’s not difficult as we move forward. Granted, if we are static and off the side of ministry…if we are operating in a theoretical zone it is rather challenging to zero in on what God seems to be doing. The non-active approach has never been the focal point of God’s kingdom. His gifts have always been focused on giving away his life.
God will give you eyes to see what he is doing as you walk in a spirit of prayer.
Let’s do outreach WHILE we pray. Let’s pray while we do outreach. If we hope to be effective we must to do both.
