Expand your vision of what “church” can be!
Yes, the church offers so many opportunities to invite people from the community to attend numerous gatherings, classes, and activities at church. That’s great!! But what about the majority of the community around the church, outside our church walls? How might we reach out to them? How do we be the church to them? How do we love them, unless we make the extra effort to know them? That’s actually what Jesus did, quite often. Let’s be creative and explore new ways of being the church to the rest of the community around us!
The possibilities are endless! You might even be overwhelmed with the number of ideas shared below. Well, there’s the saying, “You can do anything, but you can’t do everything!” But at least do something! This web site provides a glimpse of the many things being done in the Christian world to reach out and love our neighbors beyond the walls of our churches.
Explore. Read. Pray. Be inspired by all the creative ideas! But don’t stop there. Let’s go beyond just thinking about this as a good idea and do MORE to mobilize our efforts to share the love of Christ with the community around us!
As you explore all these ideas, some might strike you with an “ah ha” moment, a “hey, I think we could do that at Bethany” kind of moment. For those ideas, let’s talk further. Again, we can’t do everything, but we can sure do something! For many of the ideas, they can be done with just 2 or 5 or 10 people. Involve your small group, your grow group, your Sunday School Class. Involve your friends.
Exciting ideas are spreading around the globe!
- The New Wineskin Initiative
- Dinner Church
- The Neighboring Movement
- Fresh Expressions of Church
- Explore God
- Alpha
- Table Talk: Deeper Conversations across our UMC Connection – PodCast
- He Gets Us
Also there are SO many great books for more inspiration! Click Here
Other Ministries and Ideas
- Union – Dallas
- Wholly Committed Ministries
- Little Free Pantries
- Front Yard People – The Turquoise Table
- Bread Church
- Group.com Lifetree Cafe Resources
- Not Specifically Christian But Still Relevant
- Heartlines – Center for Values Promotion
- Sidewalk Confessions
- Sidewalk Talk: The Power of Human Connection
- Kairos Prison Ministries
Partner With the Community
- Bridging Communities: A Church’s Vision Comes to Life
- How to Get Your Church to Partner With the Community
- Church Partnerships With Nonprofits
- How Churches Can Build Community Partnerships
- The Multiplying Effect of Community Partnerships
- Partners in Hope
- The Red Bench – Interfaith Conversations That Matter
- The BIG Event – Texas A&M University
Insightful Articles
- The Gathered Church and the Scattered Church – blog post from Indiana Wesley University
- 50 Ways to Take Church to the Community
- “Dear Church, Shut Up“
- “The Loneliness of Being a Millennial in Church“
- 10 Ways to Love Your Neighbor As Yourself
- “Stop saying ‘Christians Aren’t Perfect’”
- 10 Facts About Atheists
- Three Options to Reach the Unchurched
- The Church is an Embassy, Not a Social Club
- Readying for Radical Change – Yale Divinity School
- Being the Church Beyond the Walls – Huffington Post
- Why Millennials are less religious than older Americans – Pew Research Center
- Listening to Young Atheists: Lessons for a Stronger Christianity
- Ten Ways Christians Tend to Fail at Being Christian
- Readying for Radical Change – Yale Reflections
- 7 Ways to Love People – Core Christianity
- Why are We Christian’s so Quick to Judge?