The great state of Tex-afornia

"This is the sound of the underground"

This is a line from one of my favorite pieces of poetry. The piece is (in it's entirety) a call for Christian discipleship. This line has been rattling around my tiny brain for a while, sometimes subconciously. Yesterday, the thought came into my brain. What if we brought our youth group outreach attempts into the underground? I've thought about doing "outreaches" for our ministry. It seems to me that we might be going at this all wrong. It is not that we need to do away with organized outreaches to non-believers. What I am suggesting is that we become intentional about ministering to non-believers but not advertising it. We spend so much time making big productions to draw in students that a non-believing student really doesn't want to come to. "Come to our rally!" Let's go underground. Let's not advertise or publicize. I have some history with large outreach events, and quite frankly, they do more for believers than the non-believers.

Here is what I am thinking. Pick an evening and grab three or four students. Have each of them invite a few of their non-church friends. Then simply hang out. Maybe it's playing poker or video games. Could be a dinner and movie. The goal is to create times for interaction with non-believers. I know this sounds simple, but that's the point. It is an organized effort to be small, inefficient, and relational. It teaches our students that sharing the gospel can be an everyday event, not some special, planned out affair. I am thinking that this is going to be our outreach ministry. What are your thoughts? Should we do some "big events"?

posted by Kevin @ 1:22 PM