Category — Servant Evangelism

We went out to connect with retail shops by offering to clean their toilets. We simply walked into these places with our cleaning kits in hand and said, “Hi, we’re here to clean your toilets – for free – to show you a bit of God’s kindness.” Pretty much everyone gave us a funny look. They all said they didn’t want it – but I could tell they assumed we wanted a donation. I know they thought this. We had to say several times we were doing this strictly for free with no donations accepted at all. It was only after we had told them several times that this was for FREE and we weren’t taking donations that they lightened up. After that we were able to connect with them. We were able to tell them this was a way of conveying the love of God to our neighbors. They warmed up quickly after that.
The Church has a lot of work to do in this area. We need to get to work by conveying to the culture around us what we are about. It is common that people who aren’t a part of church (perhaps they are a part of church…) think we are all about raising money. It is almost inconceivable that Jesus’ followers would do something altruistic. We need to get to work by serving others in a big way.
At the same time this provides the Church with significant opportunities. We make a strong impact by serving in surprising ways. We are able to break through into people’s lives by doing simple, doable serving projects. I don’t have a corner on the market of ideas we need to be involved with but I have discovered a few things apparently connect with the watching world.
I pray for more hearts in the Church to be able to hear the challenge God is offering these days. I pray we can sense his calling out to the culture around us. As Jesus said the harvest is plentiful – it is the laborers that are few.

Picking up some great lessons in the realm of outreach lately.

1. Diligence. The race isn’t to the fastest or the most impressive initially, but to the one who hangs in there for the long haul. I am impressed that we have seen some great things happen in the area of outreach – as people are being touched they are opening up – we are mentoring the community in civility it seems. I am impressed that we are able to turn on the faucets and see people respond.
2. Indomitable spirit. We need to have a willingness to hang in there no matter how rough the going gets. I am convinced we are going to see God show up in a stellar way as we just continue to persevere. What is the goal of all of this? Isn’t it to fall in love with others who are different than us? I think so. I can’t fall in love with the people of the city unless I am around them on a regular basis – unless God mentors me in these things. I am going to warm up to them – I am going to turn on the rocket boosters of this machine in order to get around the people who are desperately seeking Jesus. They might not know they are desperately seeking Jesus quite yet, but that’s okay. I am going to hang around them until they get it.
3. Recycle lessons learned. I am seeing that the lessons I learned a time ago – a season or two ago – are still timely. God is able to resurrect those lessons into my daily life so I am able to pick up on the lessons learned. As Wimber used to say, “Old marching orders are good marching orders.” What I started out to do some time ago still works. Those insights are good, pleasant, helpful – I will persevere in following those out.
4. Emphasize obedience. It all starts with us humbling ourselves and going back to the things that Jesus spoke to us to begin with. Unless we obey his call – unless we walk out his words to us – we will not get very far. I am convinced he is calling us on a big scale to do similar things. I hear people tell me all the time that they have been called by God to serve their community. I also hear many tell me they have gotten off track in the original calling – they have fallen into building facilities, into strategizing budgets, into the notion of building facilities in the belief people will automatically gather. I don’t buy the idea that we are okay with the erecting of facilities at the expense of dropping outreach efforts. We are all about outreaching on a perpetual basis if we take the model of scripture seriously. Unfortunately many have been able to get by with that schedule – with the idea that as they serve a little or not at all. God operates on the basis of serving, outreaching = forward progress. God don’t let us see surface progress and confuse that with your God given momentum. I like the heart of Catherine Booth of the early days of the Salvation Army fame–she said that Jesus never called us to build and simply gather – rather he calls us to outreach and aim beyond as we gather the hurting, the impaired, the discouraged.

This morning went out with several Coastland folks to serve the community by cleaning toilets. We went to a number of businesses – it’s a little too much of a head spin to clean home toilets (though I would do that in a minute if I thought we could get away with it).
We had a great response. A couple told us we couldn’t clean their johns because of insurance coverage stipulations. We were able to get into the middle of things with the majority of people we went to though. There is something powerful that transpires at that moment when those we serve get it – that we are there to serve them with no strings attached – that we are going to do something menial to show them God’s kindness.
I was able to get a few of these folks on video today. Will post those candid moments on ServeCoach.com later this week. Pretty amazing stuff. I highly recommend you try this project in your backyard. Everyone has a toilet – and everyone hates to clean it.
I wonder if this is the sort of thing Jesus would be doing if he were walking the streets of our cities these days.

TODAY we have a super cool, practical teleconference on how to expertly launch your church into Servant Evangelism in 6 months. If you have found it challenging to incorporate an outward-focus in your church, feel stumped getting traction with Servant Evangelism, or are looking for a step-by-step guide (from planning your outreaches 6 months out, creating sermons to go along with the outward focused mentality you are striving to instill in your congregations, or the set up, break down and wrap ups of all your serving events) then you DEFINITELY need to join us this TODAY, May 13th at 10:30 AM PST / 1:30 PM EST.

Charlie Wear, publisher of Next-Wave Ezine, will be our host, and this teleconference is free for anyone to attend! Either listen in online, or dial in on your phone…your choice! For the details on how to connect to this teleconference, go to this link:
http://AttendThisEvent.com/?eventid=12775485

Soon after this teleconference, we will be releasing a 6 month jumpstart course at ServeCoach.com on how to launch Servant Evangelism in your church, with step by step instructions, checklists, tracking worksheets, outreach templates, planning calendars, outreach prep talks, sermons, and more! This course will be available to all members of ServeCoach.com at no extra cost.

We are so excited about how this will be able to help so many churches that are trying to take SE to the next level. Whether you consider yourself a beginner, intermediate, or advanced practitioner of SE, this course will surely increase your effectiveness. Look for the first month of material (and more info about it) coming your way soon on ServeCoach.com.

As always, we are constantly interested in hearing how we can best serve you, so please do not hesitate to contact us with your feedback.

I look forward to connecting with you soon!

Steve
P.S. For this Thursday’s teleconference, we have 250 phone lines available, and 2000 spots online. Almost 10k people will be getting this email, so you if are truly interested in listening in, be sure to get on the call a few minutes before it starts!

Missouri Is Happening

I just got back from a trip to Missouri – I was in Springfield and Columbia. The kingdom is alive and well in both places. People are excited about extending the kingdom in big ways. I am thrilled to be included in what the Father is doing these days. I grew up in Kansas – in the Wichita area. I was inclined to think that the people who live in Missouri – and who follow Missouri sports teams especially – were a little off kilter. Such categorical thinking goes with the territory of growing about anywhere I guess.

Today God is on the move in a big way in good ‘ol Missouri. It is exciting to meet people who have been persevering in serving, praying and connecting with their community. I mentioned during one talk that I have planted several churches and, “who knows, maybe I will end up here in Missouri one day.” Four people came up to me after I finished talking to further inquire about my church planting plans. I was making a comment in passing, but it certainly was encouraging to hear the hearts of a number of people who are looking for cool spiritual things to happen in the Show Me State.