Bethany Reformed Church is encouraging its 400 members to have impact for Christ in the places where they already spend time: work, school, their neighborhoods.
“We want to connect with our community, but we’re not sure how.”
It’s something we hear often from churches. The RCA has a rich history in global mission, but what about closer to home? Until recently, many churches understood “mission” as something done mostly by missionaries in faraway places.
Our commitment to local missional engagement means that we celebrate and encourage the many examples of RCA churches doing creative ministry with their communities. It’s a renewed focus on mission principles that have always been a part of the RCA. Realizing that churches are making less of an impact in their neighborhoods than they once were, we are challenged to embrace the totality of the Great Commission. We are committed to offering resources, networking, and support to any church that wants to engage in mission locally.
Most local mission opportunities fall into one of three broad categories:
This type of local ministry is often spurred by an immediate need, and includes ministries that feed the hungry, provide aid to those in distress, and offer companionship and comfort to those who are sick or imprisoned. Aid and mercy ministry moves beyond simply feeling sympathy for what is broken. It is fundamentally about compassion—offering our time and talents to address human suffering and need.
If we think of aid and mercy as giving a hungry person a fish, development is more akin to teaching that hungry person to fish. Development is about working with individuals and communities toward a place of greater capability. It is seldom about programs (though programs are often important and typically include some sort of education and mentoring). Development is fundamentally about discovering where God is already at work, and then joining in that work with humility and an eagerness to serve.
The teaching of Jesus compels us to speak for the persecuted, poor, and marginalized. Advocacy involves actively working toward societal change in issues related to immigration, mass incarceration, underperforming public schools, police brutality, and more. Nothing is more discouraging, for example, than to work toward better nutrition in our community, only to realize the people we are working with have few options for healthy eating. Advocacy provides the means for us “to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19).
Want to get involved with local mission, but don’t know how? We can help.
Stories about Local Missional Engagement
Halloween in Lemont, Illinois, isn’t just about trick or treating. It’s also about bounce houses. Fun with friends. And wearing your costume unencumbered by a winter coat.
In a year and a half, a women’s breakfast gathering ballooned from a dozen people to more than 50—and it’s creating bridges into the community.
When it comes to communication, the metaphorical gap between teenagers and their parents can sometimes seem as wide as the Grand Canyon. Teens are growing up in a world that bears only slight resemblance to the one their parents knew, making it sometimes difficult for the two generations to relate. But California pastor Jesse Winkler is part of a pastors group working to bridge this gap in his community.
Walking into Community Church of Keyport at lunchtime is like walking into an episode of Cheers: “Everybody knows your name.”