Discipleship, Outreach

Providing a Clear Definition For Outreach Ministries

What are Outreach Ministries?

Outreach is often connected to improving earthly lives. Especially for those who might be struggling financially or facing a tragedy or some external adversity. To be clear, these are important good works, that Christians should be engaging in.

However, for the local church, outreach isn’t just about improving lives. It’s ultimately about saving lives…saving eternal lives, that is.

Outreach ministries are about eternally saving lives.

Outreach is the mode of transport, bringing people to life-saving evangelism through Jesus Christ. For the Christian, the Gospel should be the initiator and the end goal of our outreach.

Over the next week, I’d like to cover a few important facets of this word, outreach within a series of posts.

  1. Today, I’ll be providing a simple definition of outreach, that you can cling to as you navigate the seemingly neverending opportunities to volunteer and serve others.
  2. Throughout the week, I hope to explore some Biblical evidence, to show that Jesus was all about outreach ministry.
  3. Finally, I’d like to close the series with a metaphor; viewing the church as a lifeboat of survivors, to help us remember and apply our role in outreach ministries. (Bringing in other survivors that are still lost at sea!)

Let’s start our defining journey.

Dictionary.com (or Random House Unabridged Dictionary) defines “outreach” as follows:

an act or instance of reaching out, length or extent of reach” or as is pertinent to our discussion today, the act of extending services, benefits, etc., to a wider section of the population, as in  community work.

The Oxford Dictionary provides a more helpful definition, in my opinion.

“Outreach” is “the extent or length of reaching out: the loving outreach of God to the world.” Defined further as “an organization’s involvement with or influence in the community, especially in the context of religion or social welfare”.

The connection to God impressed me. It proves that Oxford has done a bit more homework. Evident as they continue defining. As I kept reading, I was surprised that as an example, to give content to their definition, Oxford stated, the growth of evangelistic outreach”.

Now we’re getting somewhere!

The Church has been at the forefront of outreach for Millennia. Oxford has seemingly found a unique balance between our cultural understanding of outreach and its historical foundations.

If you’re a Christian, you may be pushing back that these definitions are based in a secular context. If so, hold on, we’re almost there. Remember, that we’re attempting to define (and hopefully pursue) outreach ministry.

As followers of Christ, we should make a concerted effort to perform acts of outreach (perhaps even as defined by Dictionary.com) but with a further end goal. We become ministers of outreach, moving past meeting physical needs; engaging in conversation to share the Gospel.

Throughout the centuries, outreach has become one of the most valuable conduits by which evangelism and the Gospel message have been passed. We, the Church, extend services, benefits, resources, time, prayer, etc.; with the intent to bring people to Jesus.

Join the Conversation, Leave Your Thoughts

  • How is your local church currently pursuing outreach ministry?
  • In your local community, how is your family or household offering outreach to neighbours?
  • How would you define outreach in your own words?

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