Compassion By Design

I had the joy of accompanying the founders of Angel Food Ministry to the Compassion in Action Roundtable held in the Executive Office Building at the White House last week. What makes this unique is that Angel Food is a program that is operated almost exclusively through local churches. By providing essential nutrition to anyone who needs it, and using fresh high quality groceries with a healthy dose of meat, instead of surplus or donated goods, Angel food has grown from 34 boxes off a back porch in Georgia, to nearly a half million per month. In fact, currently in its peak months, Angel Food serves more people than the USDA Food Commodities Program. It is kind of like the 800 pound Gorilla of food ministry that is quietly serving all over the nation. It won’t be long until this ministry is at a million boxes a month and grows from 35 to 50 states.

What is probably more important, is the practical and meaningful way that this ministry allows churches to energize their outreach. Rather than making food available only during the holidays or based upon whatever food can be gleaned, Angel Food is allowing local churches (some 4,000) to touch people with meaningful encouragement twice each month—once when they order from a monthly menu and then again when their food is delivered. This bi-monthly contact that is tied to quality food, in addition to the dignity that is built-in (order from a menu and participate financially along side of people from all need levels and backgrounds), make it a great outreach tool for many churches looking for a way to serve. It allows these churches to help their own members as well as show practical kindness and friendship to lots of people outside the church—ideal community service.

This quote from an experienced pastor says it well:
“We have been doing Angel Food for about three months now. What an outstanding ministry. We usually deliver about 1,000 thanksgiving baskets, but I have always felt like that is putting a band aid on a gaping wound. Angel Food is a real helpful solution. We expect to be handling 700 to 800 families by the end of the year.
 


Pastor Don Hamilton Capital Area Christian Church, PA

If you are looking to find a way to start community service, Angel Food could give you a big start. It addresses practical nutrition needs, mobilizes and helps church members, and can even take the edge off rising food and gasoline prices.

You can learn more or apply here.
Angel Food Press Release

Does it have to be that complicated? In our technology rich (media, personal computing, surround sound, noise reducing ear phones, satellite radio) environment, its easy to forget the simple ingredients that Jesus used to totally rock the planet. I have spent the past 5 years in the complicated world of federal grants and public funding tied to outreach. It is easy to forget the simple there too. Could you really impact tens of thousands of people with a simple basket containing just a couple of puny fish and a few home baked loves of bread? Could the real ingredients of life change be simpler than a coordinated media blitz that includes both radio, direct marketing and brand identity development? He seemed to think so. When his disciples tried to pull some strategic planning on him, by scheduling the meeting so that there was time for a dinner break off campus, Jesus showed them that compassion plus a small basket of simple food was enough.

Is that all it takes to change the heart of men—lunch served with a heart of love? Jesus knew that he had to convince his own guys first, that’s why the loaves and fishes were enough for the crowd plus a basket of leftovers for each disciple. He reinforced this idea with Peter later, when he boiled it all down to “feed by sheep.” There is a big outreach and impact lesson here: we just need to feed people. People are naturally hungry in so many ways– physically, spiritually, relationally. We don’t really need neon lights and high tech delivery—and we don’t need to invent human hunger. We do need to respond to that hunger in love.

Are you delivering the bread? Meeting practical as well as spiritual hunger? One without the other of course is just a picnic, but when a heart of faith, filled with compassion serves up the grub, lives get changed. He didn’t separate the two, requiring a separate “food ministry”, he saw human hunger for the spiritual as connected to physical need. Food became a doorway to faith, both for the disciples as well as the crowd. We know the long-term impact of his approach when we see the crowds responding to the disciples after the day of Pentecost.

A great way to get practical about this is through a ministry that I have come to know called Angel Food. It is really simple, and brings church folks together with community members, for just good old fashioned food. This ministry helps us live out the “love them and feed them” approach of Jesus. Learn more

Food became a doorway to faith, both for the disciples as well as the crowd

 Since we are recycling everything else and trying to become a more green nation, can we just recycle the outreach strategies of the past?  Is outreach really just an activity that takes people outside of the four walls of the church to express their faith?  What will it take to make our outreach fresh and relevant (and to work)?   Given the recent reports by the Pew Foundation that demonstrate across the board decline in all Christian churches, and the dire predictions of Barna and other researchers predicting a decline in church participation by 50% by 2025, outreach is certainly not something that we can relegate to the category of non-essential, or just recycle from decades gone by re-using old strategies.  Our culture has shifted, and our outreach has to change to be effective.  We can become green, but only by aligning our outreach strategies with the real environment in which our churches now exist.  Here are some things that we should consider.

Outreach is not just marketing.  While effective marketing lets people know that we are available and that our service may fit their needs, it is not personal and is only one part of the picture.

Outreach must build new credibility.  Our brand is tarnished.  There are great misconceptions about the real identity of the church and the church’s Lord, we need to demonstrate that we are current, credible, real and valuable.  Our outreach must not reinforce stereotypes that keep people away, but rather show them something that meets their personal sense of need.

For the younger generations, outreach must involved community service.  The value held by the emerging generations is, “if you don’t make your self valuable in the community, then you are not credible.”  Our outreach has to give legs to a heart of service for others.

Outreach that touches tangible and felt human needs will have a greater impact.  Our consumer culture has been trained to ask, “what is the benefit of this product, for me?”  Our outreach cannot express an obligation, a burden or a duty, but must help people connect felt needs of the heart with the willingness of God to enter their daily reality.

Outreach has to become lifestyle for our people and our institutions.  Just like the environmental strategies to reduce the carbon footprint—it is all about lifestyle.  Programmatic or purely attractional (get them to the church for a program) approaches fall short when it comes to creating an outreach lifestyle. 

Outreach has to grow beyond the episodic.  Some of our outreach efforts are similar to annual demonstrations by protest groups.  We simply make a “show of force” once in a while so that people know we are here.  You cannot build a ongoing relationship with someone using only with an annual turkey basket.  Outreach has to become regular, personal and a normal part of our Christian routine, and it cannot feel like outreach.

Here are a couple of suggestions:

One. For entry level, try Angel Food Ministries, it provides a personal contact twice a month, can have dramatic impact in creating large outreach impact and meets a real human need.

Two.  Complete a needs assessment.  This teaches all who participate to be good at listening and networking, and prepares the church for a long term outreach focus.

Three.  Make personal contact with people outside the four walls, a regular part of your church life.  Check out the Externally Focused Network for some ideas.

This last installment answering the “why community needs assessment” question will address several additional important reasons to include a needs assessment in your new church preparation. We are convinced that this process can make a huge difference in the way that you start and the kind of church that you grow.

Crack the cultural code in your community early and accurately. One well known pastor told me that it took him nearly 10 years to really understand the culture of his community after he started a new church. Needs assessment advances this time clock dramatically, but giving insight to not only the leaders of a new church, but to its entire plant team. The entire team becomes more culturally aware within a short amount of time. This will sharpen everything about the new church from style to teaching, small groups and worship by aligning them with community values.

Help every member of your plant team to become a community net worker. Current research places the number of network contacts over 1200 for an effective church launch, and the planter cannot be the only net worker. Needs assessment points the entire team at specific community targets and gives them the initial opening to initiate a relationship.

Relationships are really the biggest reason for both needs assessment and the community ministry that follows. If we want relationships building to be a key part of our ministry expression, we have to prioritize them at the beginning.

Prepare to focus and sustain long term community engagement. The real question for new churches that want to have a community ministry or service focus is how will they sustain it? We often focus on community outreach only at the beginning of our effort and the current default for many churches is occasional or random community efforts that don’t result in sustained relationships that lead to transformation. The needs assessment brings clear focus to the community ministry by aligning the community ministry focus with the church calling, gifts and resources. Focus is a primary ingredient to community ministry that can be sustained.

If you are working to grow a missional church that is relationships centered and community focused, the real question you should be asking is “why wouldn’t I include a community needs assessment as a critical part of the launch process?” While this may require a shift in your focus, it can transform our launch effort from purely a preparation of church services to an effective relationship effort that connects to the hearts of people like a net.

Needs Assessment Resources community needs assessment kit for new churches
Check out the community needs assessment for existing churches
Join a free conference call to learn more