By Adam McLane Recently, I got together with the guys from our local youth pastors network and talked about outreach. Outreach is a word which means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. I've seen churches call their Christian schools "an outreach" since there are people who aren't Christians in the school. I've seen churches call events "outreaches" that were really events where one ministry of the church was reaching out to another. I've been to evangelistic "outreaches" with a wild concert which ends with a gospel presentation. I've been to churches that call "outreach" serving the community or feeding the homeless. But what is "Outreach?" Discuss in the forums

I define it like this, "Outreach is intentionally creating a place in a relationship for intentionally sharing God's good news."

I define it like this, "Outreach is intentionally creating a place in a relationship for intentionally sharing God's good news."

Some would argue for something to be labeled "an outreach" you have to present the gospel. As we talked about that around the table, some great examples of what not to do at an outreach event were mentioned. One pastor talked about a great “battle of the bands” that was ruined by an ill-timed gospel presentation. Just as students were starting to feel safe their trust was broken as they realized that the concert they attended was just a set up. If the goal of the event is that the gospel gets presented, it was accomplished. But if the goal of the event was that a space was created in the relationships there to talk about Christ, it was a failure. Preaching Christ is not the goal of outreach or even evangelism, people hearing the gospel and accepting it is the only goal worth getting excited about.

I would say that the important part of a successful outreach isn't that someone got up to share how one might be saved. That is important, but it isn't the most important thing that can happen as the result of an outreach, is it? The really important part is that the "lost person" gets a chance to start encountering some truth in their lives and God starts to interact with them. It's God who draws men to Himself, not a man/woman who "saves" someone.  So, even more important to a good outreach event is "Did I create a need for a lost person to talk to someone who isn't lost?"

Overall, what I walked away from today was this overwhelming reality that what we are experiencing in Romeo is happening all over in our area. Ministry leaders are recognizing that they old ways that we are good at and comfortable with reaching out to people with Jesus' message simply are ineffective in today's culture. So we can work harder, make our old methods look better, spend more money on it, but the bottom line is that the method we've been using/tweaking/perfecting just does not work like it used to.

Does that mean that the gospel is no longer effective? Obviously, the gospel is unchanging and unchangeable. The needs for salvation and the call to accept Christ is the same as it always will be. All it means is that we're experiencing a shift in how God's message will be heard. It’s our job to adapt to cultural shifts so that Christ’s message of forgiveness and redemption can be best received today.