Vision for Ministry meeting

The other night our church had a 'vision for ministry' meeting. For most of the evening we discussed what does it mean to be a ‘caring church’. Now I have to be honest when I first read the questions that were going to be discussed in the bulletin I wanted to gag. This entire focus on ‘caring’ I felt was too inner ward (I personally think we have spent way too much time looking at our belly buttons). However Lyn did a fantastic job in his opening talking about how a ‘caring church’ does not only care for itself but also cares for the community and the world. A ‘caring church’ is a blessing to everyone around. This was awesome and set the tone for the entire conversation that followed. Through out the conversation that followed I noticed that we have an interesting concept of evangelism. For many of us evangelism is equal to church attendance. Most of the evangelistic comments had to do with how do we make our church services more inviting. There was very little talk about how do we get ourselves into the community.

Then at our table Steve (who I love because he drops tuff questions on the table) asked if we need to care for ourselves better than the world will see and come. In other words our love and support for each other would be the testimony. I want to say yes but…Too often I have seen groups become so inner focused that no one else can get in. I actually see this all the time in bible studies. They love and support each other and their group is really strong and good but they will not reach out. The call is will we love and support the least not just those who are like us.

Steve also stated that we should get back to basics. We have ministries for everything when what really needs to happen is that we just have to do it. We need to love each other not just have a bunch of ministries that give some kind of care. It is every person's responsibility to show love and care for their nieghbours, friends, family, enemies and strangers. When we live like this we will be a 'caring church'.