I just got back from meeting the Alpha team we launched 5 weeks ago at UWF. It started simply: A burden to actually reach international students with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I was blown away by what has already happened in 5 short weeks.
This past Sunday night, there were 30 there, the majority 'not yet Christians', students from Japan, China, Tiawan, Morrocco, Belize and other nationalities. They gathered for a meal, then to watch a video (the team figured out how to get subtitles layered on the video), then to simply and openly discuss the content, ie, what is the purpose of life, who is Jesus, and other basic questions. Friendships of trust are being formed at each table. God is working.
Needless to say, my convictions concerning outreach and how the church does outreach have been confirmed even deeper through this. I believe that our church funds are a trust from God, and that He expects a return on investment (Matt 25). In my opinion, many church dollars are wasted on outreach that is largely ineffective.
By and large, outreach by churches falls into 3 categories:
- Church does a big outreach event, invite your unchurched friends. My experience is that by and large you get your church people there, a few non Christians show up, but it ends up being Christian entertainment for the Christians with a few people who feel terribly awkward because they are outsiders. Well intended, and we have done it many times at Harvest, but largely ineffective.
- Church, instead of an event, goes out to the 'streets' and does outreach/evangelism. Again, my experience is that this is similar to event focused outreach in that you have one big hit, then everyone goes home feeling better about themselves because 'we did what Jesus told us to do'. Again, we at Harvest have done this and it has its place, but results are very limited. I call it 'marine-style evangelism'. Invade, win, go home.
- Church embraces servant evangelism. This is fantastic and a big part of showing our good works before people who dont know God. At Harvest, we have done gas and water give aways, Christmas boxes for single moms, car service for single moms and many other servant evangelism outreaches. The best thing is what they produce in the mindset of our own people. But on a results basis, as far as non Christians really being reached, it has been extremely limited long term.
Beyond these, there are other ways that combine some form of the above, but I think you get the point. Most of us who pastor churches think about this ad nauseum and really do care about being successful in outreach.
That is why I am so excited about what is happening out at UWF right now.
All of the above is coming into play, but rather than going home, the team out there is getting involved in the lives of these internationals. They are feeding them. They are doing fun things with them. But most importantly, they are getting the opportunity every Sunday night to have open discussion about the things that really matter to eternity.
Please pray for Alpha at UWF. Many of these students will be going home after finals and not returning. The impact they can have on others when they return home is staggering once they truly give their lives to Christ.
To more fruit that remains,
PB
So excited for this. Will pray continually for all of them. Can't wait to see all the good for God that will come from this.
Posted by: Heather Harrington | November 19, 2012 at 10:16 PM