Inreach

source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brunkfordbraun/

I remember a couple of things from my earlier days of learning how to lead ministries. One is a distinct memory of rejecting our leadership's push to get more people to come to our ministry. My thinking was, because our church was so dysfunctional, I couldn't imagine what good it would do to invite anyone to it. Of course I went, but that was because it was my church. I was born into it. I didn't choose it. 

The other is a memory of speaking with someone who was a ministry leader at an East Coast college campus while we were studying abroad together. She told me her ministry position: "Inreach Director". It was a position I had thought about for our own campus, and it was one that I thought was needed. Again, although our campus ministry often pushed outward, internally I just saw so many problems that needed fixing. The garden, so to speak, needed some serious caretaking before we invited others to be planted into it. 

Now, however, I realize that things work a bit differently. Let me tell you something that probably doesn't work, now that I've put a few years into building ministries: 

"If you build it, they will come." 

I don't think so. 

The idea that we will have succeeded if we build a ministry with a good, fun community where everyone is happy and everyone knows your name, doesn't work for one major reason (at least as far as I can tell): Christ didn't gather together his church (his ekklesia or gathering) in order to bless us with warm feelings. He gathered the church to be Him and share his message. We exist so that others may know Christ, whether it be through the words that he speaks or the actions that he takes through us. 

In other words, the motto shouldn't be, "If you build it, they will come." Rather, it should be, "As you go to them, I will build My Kingdom.  (Okay, so I'm no poet...I think you still get the picture!)

A lot more could be said, but let me finish with this. The choice actually isn't between focusing on "inreach" or outreach. We shouldn't be concerned about focusing on one or the other. Rather, outreach in its purest form will always be the best inreach. When we reach out as Jesus is calling us to, we're not talking just about service projects or evangelism events. We're talking about nothing less than the basic following of Jesus Christ in all aspects of our lives. When we do that, we will not be able to help but to care for our brothers and sisters both within and outside our ministries. 

Focus on keeping your eyes locked on Jesus amidst everything that you say and do, and everything else will follow.