Welcome to the twelfth article in a series designed to enhance the use of the Small Membership Church Guideline. Ideally, this Guideline will be shared among your church leaders, read, discussed together, and utilized to strengthen ministry.

Here are some added outreach ministry suggestions to get the most out of this resource in your small membership church.

Outreach ministries are those services, activities, experiences, and interactions with people in need in the name of Jesus Christ. Usually they extend beyond your own congregation into the community in which you are located. As United Methodists, our outreach even extends around the world through the connection.

Look over the following ministry list to get a better understanding of how to reach out into your community. Remember, to meet people's needs you must know their needs.

Ministries of Compassion
These ministries heal hurts caused by factors such as poverty, disaster, abuse, and loneliness.

• Organize a clothing thrift shop or emergency food shelter.
• Make quilts to give to impoverished families, victims of natural disasters, etc.
• Cook and serve a Thanksgiving dinner for people who are homeless or home alone.
• Glean fruits and vegetables for low-income households.
• Hold rockathons, walkathons, fun runs, and so forth to raise money for world ministries and missions.
• Receive special offerings in response to natural disasters.
• Make contributions to General Advance Special missions projects.
• Sponsor mission fairs that use games, bake sales, and so forth to raise funds, while also providing displays about outreach.
• Gather perishables for holiday food baskets.

• What are the needs of people in your community?
• What is your congregation doing to heal the hurts?

Ministries of Concern and Advocacy
These ministries serve a particular group or people in crisis.

• Volunteer at senior centers or other places in your community that serve a population group.
• Develop a response team to the Bishop's Initiative on Children and Poverty.
• Support or host a refugee or immigrant family in your area.
• Sponsor a job fair and invite community employers.
• Participate in the local civic planning in your area (school board, county re-zoning, etc.).
• Be a Christian presence and advocate in the midst of community turmoil caused by conflict between groups, ideas, economic factors, or lifestyle differences.

• How does your congregation support ministries of advocacy in the community?
• How does it inform, pray, and even train people called to this ministry?

Remember: Strong outreach ministry in the small church usually happens when ministry becomes personal! Meeting a hungry child motivates us more than a statistic. Understanding insurance hardship on our elderly who miss medication (or even sell it) because of limited income is more real when we see a senior adult at the pharmacy debating whether he can afford to get even part of a prescription.

• Look at the ministries of your church. Which ministries reach out to those in need?
• How effective are they?

Thank you for visiting our website and for giving us the opportunity to serve you. Comments and questions can be directed to Julia Wallace, jwallace@gbod.org.

Julia K. Wallace is Director of Small Membership Church and Shared Ministries at the General Board of Discipleship.

Diana L. Hynson, editor of this series of articles, is Director of Learning and Teaching Ministries at the General Board of Discipleship.

Copyright © 2004 The General Board of Discipleship. Permission is granted for use in local church training or study groups. No portion of this article may be reprinted or republished in any form for any other reason without written consent. Send requests to Julia Wallace at PO Box 340003, Nashville, TN 37203-0003.

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