Avoiding the “Miss” in Missions
I had just spent two hours touring a church mission committee around Costa Mesa’s Westside. The church’s mission committee was discerning who they would partner with and had asked me to show them around the ministry where I worked. They had been engaged. They asked purposeful questions. I felt hopeful that they would partner with us.
“Thank you for your time,” the chairman of the committee told me. “We’ll let you know what we decide.”
“When do you hope to have your discernment process finished?” I asked.
“By the end of the year,” he replied.
The end of the year? It was only February. We needed volunteers in our kids programs tomorrow. We needed funding to keep going for the next quarter. The needs in our neighborhood were urgent and could not wait a year.
While I respect a good process, as a ministry leader, I saw churches’ processes become major obstacles to their engagement with their neighbors. So much time was spent surveying the congregation and meeting about budgets and interests. Very little of the process had to do with what was happening in the broader community and more to do with what was happening in their church.
The experience above and others like it have formed my understanding of the barriers churches face as they seek to engage and love their neighbors in meaningful ways. Now I lead a church as a pastor and our leadership team has worked to imagine a way through and around some of these barriers. While I’m sure we have our own blind spots as a church family, I would like to outline misses we seek to avoid by committing to the health of our communities.
Miss #1- The neighbors are dying while the Church is discerning
Recently a friend shared that four senior adults in her Costa Mesa neighborhood have committed suicide this year. This was astonishing to me. I could hear the discouragement in her voice as she had sought to be a neighbor and caring presence in their lives. As I listened to her, the statistics about loneliness became real and vivid in my own community.
As a pastor focused on mobilizing our congregation to care for the broader community, I have often been approached with the strategy of discerning one or two areas of focus that our whole congregation can rally around. There is an energy in doing something together. There is a simplicity and focus that comes with putting a stake in the ground and saying, “this is what we are about!” This is a tempting strategy for me.
Like the church story above, the process of discerning what the church collectively cares about can lead to some issues we hope to avoid as a church family. We want to avoid a strategy that:
Centers those at the table- When the decision making power for a communal focus is in the hands of a few leaders it can disregard skills, passions, and callings within the congregation. Decisions lie with those on the committee or team and are often limited to their connections and experiences. People who have faithfully served for years in other ministries become unseen servants disconnected from their church’s strategy despite their effectiveness in the community.
Centers the church- When a cause or ministry focus emerges from what a congregation has to offer, it centers the resources of the church and can lead to a “look what we’re doing” attitude of engagement. This often disregards the resources a neighborhood or ministry has to offer in partnership. We miss the opportunity to discern engagement based on walking with a particular community and listening to their goals. We miss the opportunity to discern with a community where our shared resources join for impact.
Allows individuals to miss out on spiritual formation- It is curious to me when I hear a congregant talk about what “we do” in the community when I know that they have not ever actually engaged. My experience has been that people like to be a part of a church that engages in significant ministry but oftentimes they are content to let others do the actual serving and giving. Many times the work of church partnership is carried by very few people who faithfully serve and represent their church. Other disciples can then abdicate their formation to the family, missing out on the Spirit’s transformation of their own lives.
Brings death by committee- The valuable time of ministry partners and church leaders gets wrapped up in committee meetings about serving instead of actually being with the community you hope to see thrive. Meanwhile there are real people in crisis praying for a miracle. The more connected we are outside of the church, the less likely our neighbors suffer alone.
I bring the issues with Miss #1 to our attention because I have participated and perpetuated each point throughout my ministry years. My hope is to lead Redemption Church on a redemptive path as we step into commitments to particular communities. We hope to overcome Miss #1 by:
Centering the gifts of the whole church family- We believe that each one of us have been created with skills, callings, and gifts that are meant to be stewarded for the Kingdom of God. And we recognize that we go through different seasons of life and various resource capacities that change how we are able to engage at different stages. We all have gifts and resources at we’re called to commit to a particular community.
Centering our communities- Many people in the Redemption church family are already committed to the health of a community. Gathering as a church family is an opportunity to cheer one another on as we each listen to our community and learn from them. At our gathering we get to hear and learn from each other how we are being formed in the Way of Christ by our communities. As we gather there is space to hear where we each need help and connect one another to resources that assist our communities.
Each one of us committing to the health of a community, together - Jesus said that after loving God, the greatest commandment is to love our neighbors. We are formed in the Way of Christ as we serve and sacrifice for others. At For Our Communities Sunday space is created for you to celebrate and connect with others who are serving in the same or similar communities. We know there is value in serving together and we want to connect you with others who care for the community you are committed to serve.
Providing connections and resources- We believe that our greatest resource as the family of God is one another. Who knows what can happen when we hear a challenge someone in our circle is experiencing and realize we have a connection that can help. We plan to spend our time exploring solutions to challenges together in ways that equip us to add to the thriving of our communities.
We will not be able to avoid every miss and barrier as we seek the health of our communities, but For Our Communities Sundays create a path to collectively be about the health of our communities.
Miss #2
The mission pastor on the other end of the phone said, “I’m stepping down and they are going to hire another new mission pastor.” My heart sank. As a ministry leader who partnered with her church, I would miss working with the pastor on the phone. She had been with us since we had started the ministry. She had advocated for us to receive increased funding each year and had mobilized many volunteers to serve with our ministry. We had traveled together and shared meals. We had spent years building a relationship that benefited the community. All of that suddenly felt at risk.
My experience has been that often when a new mission pastor comes in, they bring with them their own preferred ministries and relationships that take priority for a church. This can leave long term partners questioning the stability of funding and volunteers.
We are looking at some misses in mission that we seek to avoid. The second miss we want to avoid is pet projects of mission pastors and leaders.
Miss #2- Pet Projects of mission pastors and leaders
Trust is key in any relationship, particularly when it comes to funding ministry and mobilizing networks of service and support. However, a system that favors those who have the ear and attention of the decision makers sets up a situation that:
Centers the leaders + their friendships- Mission pastors are often responsible to steward large budgets and mobilize many people. Working with their friends and trusted colleagues is a quick way to accomplish the goals of their job. And it can short cut the process of getting to know communities and the strategies that are making a true difference in those places. Leaders can use their influence to funnel resources to their preferred ministries without understanding the big picture of how their church could impact communities.
Favors the charismatic and resourced ministries- When those in relationship with the mission pastor win the resources, the goal of each ministry becomes the favor of the pastor. The organizations who can afford to fly pastors and mission leaders on retreats and vision trips often “win” the partnership. It is difficult for new and smaller ministries to keep up when they are in the day to day of the work.
Changes with the trends- Despite the Church’s centuries long traditions, we are prone to trends like everyone else in our culture. You may recognize some of the more recent ones in mission: child soldiers, victims of human trafficking, and water projects. These are all extremely serious issues that the Church should care about and resource over the long period of time it will take to make an impact. Instead mission funding like foundation grant cycles has been whittled down to one to three year cycles. When your particular cause is trending, it is easier to access the resources needed to do the important work. But when it is not trending, it becomes more difficult to get the attention of mission leaders.
As the pastor leading our mission efforts for the last four years, these are scenarios I have found myself in on several occasions. Many times I could discern the problem but could not imagine a better path forward. Working with the For Our Communities leaders has made space to imagine a better path for our church family.
The purpose of our 4th Sunday gathering is to connect and equip our church family so you can engage in the communities you are committed to see thrive. Our dream is that we can collectively overcome miss #2 in mission by:
Trusting your ability to be led by God- As a church family our hope is that each person would be actively engaged in serving the community you want to see thrive. We have networks we can mobilize to connect people looking to step into a particular community but we are not prescribing a community where you have to engage. We want to cheer you on where you are led by the Spirit and learn from you about the community where you serve.
Creating a replicable, scalable strategy - When you arrive for the gathering on fourth Sundays, you will see five circles that represent communities where our church family is already engaged. We may not all serve with the same organization or in the exact same neighborhoods but there are commonalities we can gather around to spur one another on and learn from each other. And there is space to add more circles as we discover the good work and beauty of communities you want to serve with and support. We are discerning as we go throughout our weeks and reporting back opportunities in the community.
Committing to the health of our communities- As we develop relationships in the communities where we serve and begin to understand the nuances of the issues people are up against, we will see the need for commitment and joy of working together for an extended period of time. Knowing we have a church family that is in it with us, equipping us to intentionally engage, and matching our giving to the places we care about increases our capacity to contribute to long term change.
The issues and problems in our communities and world can feel overwhelming at times. It is easy to be critical of strategies and important to understand where we have missed the mark in the past. Yet I am most energized about collectively impacting the communities where God has led each one of us to participate in the Kingdom arriving.
Miss #3
“Will you have table cloths there? And cookies?” I was taken aback by the question. I was on the phone with a church partner who had recruited some volunteers to work with our ministry. We were planning a volunteer orientation and I had just gone over the details of the training with her. Apparently I had left out the part about the refreshments. She went on to explain that they had a certain standard for how their church volunteers were treated and wanted to be sure I was aware of this before she sent them over.
As a ministry leader I assumed that our partner churches were preparing their people to take up their cross and follow Jesus. I thought we were all learning how to die. It seemed that with all the time people spent in church and church activities, they would be well versed in their call to visit the prisoner, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the immigrant, and offer hospitality to the lonely. I was not sure how tablecloths and cookies factored into our concerns (although we did already provide both of those things).
Over the decade that our team put on volunteer orientations for our church partners we taught community development strategies, educated volunteers on the US immigration and education systems, and prepared tutors around specific child development needs. Our work was both broad and deep and required ongoing learning for all of us, including our volunteers. What I did not anticipate was the amount of time we spent with our volunteers studying a biblical, theological foundation for caring for our community. I did not anticipate the amount of protectionism and “correction” that would come from our partner churches when their volunteers’ understanding of scripture was shaken. As a ministry leader I felt betrayed by the Church, left to disciple their people in the very basic, clear commandment to love their neighbor as themselves.
This leads to the next “miss in mission” that we are trying to avoid as a church family.
Miss #3- The Church has outsourced formation
The expansion of para-church organizations has resulted in some cases in an arrangement where church partnership is synonymous with “we pay you to teach our people to care for the community.” This mentality results in ministry and service organizations being burdened to:
Center the church people + their needs- Often ministry partnership is more tied to the experience and growth of the church volunteer than it is to the impact with the community the ministry serves. While it’s important to orient people and create pathways for them to connect in service, the measure of success is not how they feel at the end of the day. The ministry does not exist to serve the volunteers but to serve their community.
Form people in the Way of Jesus- Sacrificially serving our neighbors in any capacity is going to form Christ in us. As a ministry leader it was a joy to be with people when the scripture connected with their service to others or an epiphany from God’s Spirit hit them. That was a bonus of the work, but it wasn’t the work of our ministry. Ministries exist to do all kinds of work from providing homes to foster children to serving food to the hungry to equipping people for jobs… it is the work of the Church to form people in the Way of Jesus. By the time they get out to their community they should have a baseline understanding of their call to partner with God in the world. To have to convince church volunteers of their biblical reason for being often adds to the burden of an already stretched thin ministry team.
As a church family committed to owning our formation in the Way of Christ, we understand how Holy Spirit invites us into partnership with God’s work for justice and peace in the communities we are a part of. Partnering with God in service to others forms and stretches in such ways that require us to double down on the spiritual practices that sustain and connect us with the power of God. This ongoing cycle of contemplation and action forms us and I believe helps us to overcome miss #3 by:
Centering the health of our communities- We engage in a community outside of our family and church at the invitation of the Holy Spirit. Our heads are lifted and eyes are opened to how God is moving around us. The focus is not our comfort and control but how we might serve, sacrifice, and give to the thriving of another.
Committing to our formation collectively- Our partnership with the Spirit of God in our communities is a huge part of what forms us in the Way of Christ. It is not the result of being perfectly formed, it is part of the process of walking with Jesus. We don’t serve others because we have “extra” time and money, we prioritize the health of a community because our understanding of Christ is directly related to our capacity to see beyond ourselves. We gather in community groups and Sunday services to celebrate the ways we see Christ at work and to be equipped for the work of ministry all around us.
At For Our Communities Sundays we are creating space to celebrate God’s work and center the challenges our communities are facing. There may not be tablecloths, but there will be a family of believers committed to equipping one another to care for the health of their communities. I can’t wait to hear about the community Holy Spirit has invited you into.