Outreach has long been an important part of our church, with significant accomplishments and contributions to both local and global efforts. Although our outreach has had a tremendous impact, there may be opportunities to improve and reach further. As a result, an Outreach Design Team was formed in January, 2007 to study the possibilities, leverage learnings, and to develop a strategic plan for future outreach activities.

Since Outreach is owned by the congregation, a survey was conducted in April 2007 to gather input on interests, preferences, and views to shape the direction and form outreach will take in FUMC. Nearly 200 people participated via paper or electronic survey, focus groups, or individual interviews. The input was tremendous, with many thoughtful, constructive, and actionable suggestions. Results of the survey provided critical guidance for the Outreach strategy development, including areas for focus and growth, enabling infrastructure and support processes, and possible issues to address. The resulting Outreach Strategy was presented to the Leadership Council on July 10, 2007. With the endorsement and support of the Leadership Council, the Design Team is in the process of developing the support infrastructure for launch of the new Outreach Ministries Program in early November.

The vision of this key FUMC ministry is to discover and engage the unique passion of each person in our church community for a life of service. To accomplish this, a multifaceted program, with a portfolio of participation opportunities, focused on addressing the brokenness in our community and world, has been developed.

What is our Outreach Philosophy?

Numerous scripture passages and contemporary literature are highly relevant to understanding the need to participate in outreach and provide the basis for our Responding to Needs - Everyone Involved in Outreach Ministries program. The philosophy is also expressed through the values, mission, and vision for outreach.

Scripture & Contemporary Sources

“I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you gave me clothing. I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison and you visited me…Truly, I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25: 35–40)

“What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6: 8)

“Loving God means paying attention to God and to what God loves… and becoming passionate about that which God is passionate about.” (Marcus Borg, The Heart of Christianity, pp. 187–204)

Values

Relationship
The starting point for outreach is God’s love and our relationship to God. It is through relationship we offer support, encouragement, and hope to others in their life situation and become available to God’s love. We celebrate our mutual identity as children of God with the world and the importance of serving others.

Passion / Inspiration
God has gifted each and every person with unique talents, skills, personalities, and passions. Connecting our uniqueness with serving others reveals much about our identity and purpose in life.

Abundance
First and foremost, we commit ourselves to serve others and our resources follow (heart, time, and money–in that order). God’s resources are infinite.

Transformation
We seek to transform each person in our church community into Christian disciples by serving others. Through God’s love, our service and our relationships, transformation of ourselves and world becomes a possibility.

Mission

"We are called by Christ to give of ourselves to others. As a church community, we seek to join God at work in the brokenness of the community and world. The church doesn’t exist for itself; it exists to serve the community and world."

Vision

"Discover and engage the unique passion of each person in our church community for a life of service."

 

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Congregational Input on Outreach: Brief Summary

There were over 200 people who participated in the survey, focus groups and interviews, and provided comments with tremendous depth and breadth with thoughtful, concrete, and constructive suggestions.

There were several repeating themes:

• Many view our church as doing outreach well.
• Current youth and global mission projects are well supported and viewed as successful.
• The motivation to continue and to grow is evident.

The key take-away messages from the congregational input were:

• Maintain variety of needs-driven outreach projects.
• Make it easier for congregation to understand.
• Make it easier for the congregation to engage.
• Provide enabling support and mentoring for project leaders/teams.

The survey indicated that our church is passionate about the following top five needs

• Hunger
• Children/Teens in Crisis
• Literacy/Education
• Homelessness
• Social Justice

There is support for global projects, a desire for more local projects, and interest in addressing special needs as they occur.