Kokomo Urban Outreach is a network of churches, organizations and individuals that have a heart for hometown missions. Our goal is to help churches think and act “Missionally“. The church that I led is moving in that direction. The church building is located in the midst of a large number of “under-resourced” families. Under-resourced families not only lack finances but also systems of support (family, church, community). Over the past couple of years I have learned a great deal about reaching out to the under-resourced and have seen a great transformation—–in me.

Outreach to the under-resourced is not simply doing my good deed for the day, nor does it exist to give me something to pat myself on the back about. It is not the impersonal distribution of my leftovers. It is about sharing Christ… His provisions…..love, compassion, kindness and warmth with the hurting, the broken, the hard living and rough edged. It is about being light and salt in places of darkness and hopelessness. It is about Kingdom living.

Outreach to the under-resourced is not reaching from our high position down to their low position. It is rather our reaching out as peers. It is about me coming to terms with my brokenness—reaching out to other broken individuals. It is about… dignity and respect… looking into the eyes of another human being… being real and building relationships…sharing my meals, my home and my life. It is about reconnecting the disconnected, as well as connecting with the disconnected.

Outreach to the under-resourced is about seeing people and the neighborhood through the eyes of Jesus. It is seeing more similarities than differences, yet dealing with the differences appropriately.

Outreach to the under-resourced is less about ethnicity or race, and more about geography and culture. It is about a culture of poverty. Not simply economic poverty, but a poverty of spirit and attitude.

Outreach to the under-resourced is not just teaching, but being taught. It is listening and learning—discovering the flaws in my culture as well as the honorable things in other cultures.

Outreach to the under-resource is not about the rich folks coming down to help the poor folks because they feel sorry for them. It is about building partnerships and cooperation. It is about working together for renewal—spiritual renewal, community renewal, family renewal, and personal renewal—-not just for them but for us.

There is a great article on Leadership Journal’s weekly newsletter. The author discusses how the term missional has become a buzzword. I didn’t realize that missional was a buzzword, however, I have seen some trying to address “missional” issues within a church growth framework. I guess, such an approach would make missional into a buzzword.

I would file this under the heading of ‘we are willing to do anything to get our church to growth.’ Under such a framework missional is simply one more program to add on to church to facilitate growth rather than a deep transforming understanding that affects everything one does.

The article is here and I encourage you to take a look at it if you are interested in missional issues. The author also comments on qualities that truly missional churches possess. I am convinced that in order for the UMC to survive, we must understand what it means to be missional and begin ‘dying’ to ourselves by transitioning to a new way of being church and understanding who we are in Christ (the sent out ones).

Jeff Newton, who is also posting articles on here now, is doing a wonderful job in a missonal ministry called Urban Outreach. The UMC however, must find ways to incorporate such missional understandings in its congregations. I believe it is possible, but I believe we must be intentional about moving to this type of understanding.

God has been teaching me, lately, that the Gospel is an invitation into a new way of life— something that God shapes and is Kingdom oriented. When Jesus appears his message is “repent and believe the good news that the Kingdom of God is near” (Mark 1:19). Living in the Kingdom means— my mind is changed (repent) and I believe the Good News ( the Kingdom of God is near). Living in the Kingdom means that I am on a journey with Jesus. Each day I am becoming more and more aware of God and how God is helping me take on a new attitude, live a new lifestyle and do it all with the help of a new leader (Jesus). As I read the scriptures I can see and hear what God was up to in the world in Jesus day and sense God calling me to do the same thing, today. I am shaped by the Scriptures, prayer and other people. Actually, everything around me, every passing moment is shaping me. I am beginning to see how the Holy Spirit is forming me.

In Acts 2, Luke reports to his friend Theophilus about how the early followers were being formed into a community. I don’t think Luke was explaining how an “institutional church” should operate as much as he was explaining how the Holy Spirit was shaping a new faith community—they were discovering life together as a renewed community of God.

It seems like those in the early faith community spent a great deal of time listening to the apostles share Jesus stories and learning about the Kingdom. They ate together, shared their possessions with others, committed their time to prayer and worshiped God in the temple. They were aware that Jesus was alive and living among them through the Holy Spirit. They believed that Jesus would soon return to fully establish his Kingdom making all things right.

Today we discuss what a “real” church is to be about. Is the church a building, an institution, or an organization? To be a church must there be music, a sermon, committees or a budget? Are there other expressions of church?

Could “church” center around informal dinners with those on the journey, sharing food, talking, disagreeing, praying, crying, or laughing? Maybe it is possible encounter the Kingdom in the ordinary. Could I be sharing in the Kingdom when I laugh with my son as he shows me yet another silly “You Tube” video or by helping a neighbor with some food, or by praying for a close friends healing, or listening to a group of neighbors gathered on a porch? I am beginning to think that the church is the community of faith that comes together and through a variety of ways are being transformed into the image of Jesus.

In recent months, I have met many people who who are interested in this way of living. Many of us meet weekly to do community outreach and in the midst of working side by side we are learning from each other, sharing our stories and the Story with each other. Most of us are convinced that Jesus is alive and well teaching us his Way, as we act on what he is calling us to do. We know that God is forming us in the places we find ourselves —a sort of an inside out transformation.

My eyes are opened each week as I see the Kingdom appear before me as a young doctor feeds a child, or an unemployed father puts a helping of macaroni and cheese on a plate, or a lawyer washes dishes. The Kingdom comes as I watch a teenage boy sitting on the floor with a little child falling asleep in his lap as the rest of the children are singing Jesus Loves Me or as an older man struggles to get up off the floor as he had been sitting there listening to children share prayer concerns and caring enough to pray for them. That’s how the Kingdom is forming me, I am blessed to see glimpses of the Kingdom and am anticipating the Day when Jesus returns to set things right — once and for all.

I am realizing that I have more questions than answers. I have seen a lot of giving up lately and I wonder why. Why are so many of my pastor friends leaving the ministry? Why are so many pastors depressed or so ill they can no longer function in the church setting? Why are so many retiring early, moving on to other professions, or dying young? Why have others decided to go with the flow, not rock the boat and being satisfied doing the same things over and over expecting things to be different and better?

Why do lay people leave one church to go to another? Why do so many just stay home on Sunday to eat brunch with family members and occasionally turn on “Christian” TV?

Something in the church doesn’t seem right. I wonder if the theories are true? Is the church in decline because it has patterned itself after big business? Do we need to spend more money on marketing? Do we just need a few more websites, a few more TV commercials or a just a couple of more billboards? Do we have too much bureaucracy? Are we too selfish? Do we function like a social club,—is that the problem? Are we too relevant or not relevant enough? I wish I had the answers. Perhaps these questions are best answered by sociologists or church growth experts. I confess I ask too many questions.

Recently, I have been wondering what would happen if our faith communities were actively becoming like Jesus? What would happen if our faith communities meaningfully participated in the neighborhoods and the communities in which it is located? What would happen if our faith communities would take the Kingdom of God seriously (God’s will being done on Earth as it is in Heaven)? How would our churches be different if we allowed the rule of God to transform us, our allegiances, beliefs, values, feelings and behaviors.What would happen if our faith communities from all over a city worked together for the Kingdom?

What would happen if our churches were invited to leave behind the need for the accumulating more people, finances or buildings? What if we left behind our competition and self-centeredness to join together in a mission of love, blessing, and peace? And what if we did it not for the purpose of church growth but just because Jesus wants us to? Just wondering. What are your thoughts?

I often wonder what it would take to get the UMC back on track. We have a marvelous tradition. Reading the stories of John and Charles Wesley and the early Circuit Riders can send shivers up your spine and cause you to find the nearest grave to use as a pulpit while putting words of worship to the music of Justin Timberlake. Perhaps the Timberlake comment was a bit over the top, but you get the idea.

Now we hear stories of increased costs and decreased numbers in membership and worship. Instead of being in the business of planting healthy churches (versus planting worship services), we have become experts in merging congregations that can no longer survive on their own. Today the stories are depressing and causes pastors and laity alike to look at each other and wonder what it will take to turn things around.

I’ve seen many approaches to these problems. One of the things we have tried in my own conference is rallies. Rallies are when we get together, sing loud praises and go home encouraged that we were all able to get together and nobody left mad. The result? About the same that we had before.

We’ve had seminars, conferences, think tanks, and a lot of classes. After twenty years of this, I have to stand back and wonder if our approach isn’t wrong. We keep believing that if we try the same things, only with more energy and perhaps a slightly different focus, we can achieve what we dream.

I wonder if even trying to figure out how to survive is the wrong approach. If I remember correctly, Jesus didn’t really talk about how to survive. He did talk about how to die. In fact, he told us to take up our cross, die to ourselves and follow him. Maybe…just maybe…we need to get together and find better ways to die. Perhaps we are so busy trying to ’save’ our lives (The Methodist Church) and instead, we should be finding ways to give ourselves away. After all, isn’t that what the Wesley brothers and Circuit riders were so good at?