Scott Frederickson says,
The question is never whether a congregation can offer a specialized ministry of one kind or another, but whether a congregation offers those ministries out of the core of who God has created it to be in its particular context.[1]
Our church has begun two initiatives to serve our neighborhood. We have entered into dialogue with our neighbors living in the condominiums and through these conversations we have begun a community garden on the property of the church. The garden boxes have been built and are waiting for the topsoil to be delivered. The second initiative involves working with the public school in our neighborhood. In conversations with the school we learned about too many kids going hungry everyday and so we started making lunches. Each week our church makes 32 sandwiches and the school is responsible for giving hungry kids these lunches.
These initiatives are certainly specialized to some degree and have arisen out of conversations with the neighborhood. Yet I sometimes question whether or not we are involved in these ministry initiatives for the mere fact that we hope our church will grow numerically. Should we not instead be involved in these ministries because God has created us to be his presence in this world? Should we not instead be involved in these ministries because God has commissioned us to be participants with him extending his redemption to the broken? Should we not instead be involved in these ministries because God has created us to be his hands and feet?
Right now I am thinking that I don’t want to be part of a ministry initiative for the mere reason that this will grow us numerically. Instead I want to be a part of a ministry initiative because I have this deep understanding that what I/we are doing is rooted in what God is doing in and through us and what God is creating us to be.
[1] Scott Frederickson, “The Missional Congregation In Context,” in The Missional Church in Context, ed., Craig Van Gelder (Eerdmans, 2007), 60.
Incarnating the Gospel of Jesus Christ 