Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome to Missionize with the Missions Guys, a podcast of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, offering biblical and practical insight and strategies designed to equip and encourage missions leaders to carry on mission work. The goal is to fulfill the great Commission from a church's local community to the ends of the earth. That is why we missionize.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: Now.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: Here are your hosts, the Missions guys, Sam Roberts and and Clint Richey.
[00:00:31] Speaker C: Thanks for joining us for this episode of Mission Eyes. I'm Clint here with our co host, Dr. Sam. And it's the end of February, and so we hope that some warmer weather is coming. Yeah, it just seems like it was Christmas just a week or so ago.
You know, we have talked before, Dr. Sam, about the cycles that come in a church calendar. And you know, as we look at that, the cold in the wet months of February, you know, January and February, there's not a whole lot going on unless you're a duck hunter during that time. But for the church, it can be.
[00:01:04] Speaker B: And even if you are a duck hunter, there's not a lot going on right now.
[00:01:07] Speaker C: That's right. Yes. Yeah. But those months are a time really when a church can capitalize on preparing for the spring. Because the spring, as we talked about, brings some intentional outreach opportunities that maybe don't come any other time of the year.
[00:01:24] Speaker B: Yeah, it's kind of like what we talked about last year in the fall, we introduced some fall outreach opportunities. You know, those seasonal things that you look at your calendar and you trying to leverage that calendar with the ministries, with the service, with whatever it is, the life of the church. You know, you leverage that according to that calendar, and spring does it provides that unique opportunities in and of itself. Just like fall, you know, fall, you've got, you know, the pumpkins and the hay rods and the change of weather and the festivals, those sort of things. With the spring, you've got a whole different slate of opportunities that come before you.
You've got everything is starting to wake up from the winter slumber. You know, grass is growing, flowers are beginning to bud, those sort of things. And so just people are starting to get out more, walk in the neighborhood, those sort of things. So there's just a different opportunity. And one of those opportunities is the Easter season.
It's an incredible opportunity for reaching into your community and getting to know your community and to serve your community.
You know, I look back on the time that I spent as a pastor, and the spring, especially around Easter, was a great time for making connections with people in various neighborhoods around the church. Whether that was Prayer, walking those neighborhoods. Or maybe it's time for a block party because weather is changing and people want to get out. Or you always have those Easter egg hunts or a family scavenger hunt.
Like I said, there's the planting season, the seeds being put into the ground, and opportunities there that a church can take advantage of to reach out into its community.
[00:03:42] Speaker C: That's right. And so that's where we're going to go today. A great segue there to talk about the Easter season and not just Easter, but spring as a whole. Again, there's some unique opportunities that come. And that's what led us a few years ago to start an intentional statewide effort of serving and inviting. And last year that became known as the Spring Outreach Strategy. And so we want to explore this strategy today. And there's four components of the strategy. Each one builds on the other. The first component is new. This year it is 3:16 on 3:16. What in the world, you may ask? Well, March 16th is a Sunday this year, and abbreviated writing for that date is 3:16. So the north American Mission Board realized this occurrence and started the emphasis on, of encouraging pastors to Preach on John 3:16 on March 16th.
Now, John 3:16 is probably the most well known verse in the Bible, even for those people who don't know Jesus. And I mean, everybody has seen the sign, however they get it, behind the field goal to the football game, somebody holding up John 3:16.
And so that date, March 16, can be the launch of, of your Spring Outreach strategy in a local church as you create a culture of inviting, serving and sharing the gospel across communities and in our state by reminding people that God sent Jesus motivated by his love for mankind, so that those who believe in him will not perish but have everlasting life. Now, Paul reminds us in Acts 10. How then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one in whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? You know, Dr. Sam, as pastors we can get caught up in man. We need to have something that is new, it's fresh, it's deep. And I don't know about you, but I don't know when the last message, the last time I can remember hearing a message or preaching a message on the elementary truths found in John 3:16.
[00:05:59] Speaker B: Wow, I gotta go back in my files and look at that one now. Cause I can't remember it either. You know, I really can't.
But here's what's so cool about 3:16 on 3:16.
John 3:16 reminds me of the simplicity of the gospel. You hit on it just a moment ago.
It's a simple message.
And guys, there's no need to find some creative, never before revealed way to tell the story. Just tell the story. Just tell the story.
And I think what I would say is, hey, keep a couple of things in mind.
Number one is your church members, those folks who come each and every Sunday, or those who come only one Sunday a year or two Sundays a year, that sort of thing, they want to hear the truth of the gospel, especially those who are there every Sunday.
And just also remember this, most of those folks sitting there on a Sunday morning, they're not going to remember what you preached last Easter. They're probably not going to remember what you preached during Christmas or even last Sunday, you know, but they need to remember. They need the gospel. And John 3:16 reveals the simplicity of the gospel.
It may be so simple that it's hard for some people to believe it, that how can this be true, but you get the opportunity of sharing that with the folks. The second thing I would say to remember as you preach the simplicity of the gospel on 3:16 is this. There's the possibility on any given Sunday that there's someone in that service who doesn't know Jesus and they've never heard the Gospel presented in a simple way they can understand.
You can't get any more simpler than for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life.
Man, that's incredible. Now that, like you said, that's a new component this year to our Spring Outreach strategy. We're grateful for Mark Tolbert for giving us some direction there. And you and Mark have been talking quite a bit and collaborating quite a bit on some resources, those sort of things to help strengthen this. You'll find some of those resources there if you look at Spring Outreach strategy on the missions page.
Now, servelocal is the second component. We've got 316 on 316 preach a simple gospel message on John 3:16. The second is what we call Serve Local. Now that began a few years ago when Covid did not allow us to do our annual one day.
And so we knew that God was saying we've got to do something.
And so driving either to Russell, I think it was two Russellville, you and me and Dr. Bob Harper kind of fleshed out Serve Local and we rolled it out quickly to Arkansas Baptist churches to say, hey, we may not be able to gather 2000 Arkansas Baptists at a football field in Russellville, Arkansas, but you can get two or three, or your families can go out into your community and do some very strategic intentional outreach during this time. Now, what we've seen over the last four years is more than 8,500 Arkansas Baptists have been mobilized to serve their local communities. And we've also seen over 300 people come to Faith in Jesus through Serve Local.
Now, that's incredible.
So here's what servelocal involves. We encourage you to get with your leadership and select a day, maybe multiple days, but during the week of April 12th through the 9th for the purpose of serving your community, of meeting some practical need that is there and strategically sharing the gospel during that time. Like I said, we have some resources that are there. Other resources may be added.
But I'm interested, Clint, in knowing what's behind choosing that particular date. April 12th through the 9th.
[00:11:12] Speaker C: Yeah. April 12th through the 19th is the Saturday before Palm Sunday through the day before Easter.
So basically you're saying the eight days before Easter. Now, Easter is already a natural high attendance day, even for those who are in church. So we want to strategically serve our churches and however you desire. And as you're doing that, you're inviting people to Easter services.
[00:11:43] Speaker B: So easter is Easter 20th, and it is the event, the time, the gathering, that while you're serving your community, you are intentionally inviting people to come on Easter Sunday.
[00:11:57] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:11:58] Speaker B: Knowing that a lot of people in the community are going to choose someplace to go.
[00:12:02] Speaker C: That's right. And we'll talk about. I mean, that may look like hosting an event or that may be doing door hangers and inviting people to your Easter services. We'll look at that in a second. Before we give out a lot of ideas, I want to let people know the website absc.org SOS for spring outreach strategy. If you look there, each of these components have their own page. When you click on the Serve Local page, there's a resource that is full of ideas. And we have given this resource out. Probably more traction on this than anything else we've done.
[00:12:37] Speaker B: Incredible.
[00:12:38] Speaker C: Called 101 or more ways to serve local or 101 serve local ideas.
And it is full. It's 101. Just quick ideas. Some of them may take more prep than others. Some may have lower cost involved than the others. A lot of them aren't going to cost you anything to do. But if you look in those, I like to group them into three main categories, and I Think these are also really three main needs as we see in all of our communities. One of those is a personal need category.
You know what, there are folks all around in our communities that have personal needs that you can meet simply by serving as a church or a Sunday school class, a small group or even your family. On a day between April 12th and the 19th, maybe you do a canned food drive and do a food distribution. Arkansas remains the number one state in food insecurity. If you've been to the grocery store, you know that is just becoming a greater need. And we see churches that host a free food distribution where there's no eligibility requirements or anything like that, but you just come and you're given food. Or some churches just they're doing a free hot meal, but a way just to meet the need for food.
And then again with just difficult process of everything. We won't get into all the economy stuff. But where we have seen probably the most success in seeing people reach the last several years has been in a no sale yard sale, where you're just collecting stuff from people in your church and then people from the community will actually give to it. And you're giving it away because most people have plenty of stuff they'd love to get rid of, but they don't want to have a yard sale or they don't have enough stuff to do a yard sale. And so they would be more than gladly, more than glad to give it to your church so that you could give it away to someone who could use that. And so those two, the food distribution, the no sale, yard sale, we would love to connect with you further on how to do those and be very intentional in sharing the gospel, giving people a chance to respond. And again, we have seen, literally seen hundreds of people saved in those two ministries over the last four years.
[00:14:59] Speaker B: Yeah. And what you're basically saying, Clinton, with what you're categorizing as personal needs, are those Compassion ministries?
[00:15:08] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:15:08] Speaker B: That's where we take the love of Jesus and we put flesh to it. We know that there are real needs in every community in our state.
Your community has real needs. People are hurting.
There are needs that they have. It's identifying those needs, addressing those needs as a church, and then using that as an opportunity to engage in a gospel conversation, to point them to Jesus by letting them know there's a greater need than this.
[00:15:43] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:15:44] Speaker B: And that's the need of lostness. And here's the solution. You know, this food can help you for a little bit, but we're talking about living water. You know, we're talking about the bread of life.
So that's great. What's the second category?
[00:16:00] Speaker C: Second category are community needs. You know, there are always things that just need to be done in your community, and that may be beautification projects. If you have parks or, you know, a city parks and recreation department, they always have things that they can't get done. Schools, you know, the teachers lounge is usually one of the most neglected places in a school. But a school may just need some help sprucing up the playground, you know, and these things are what I like to call bridge builders because you may not encounter a whole lot of lost people as you're doing those. Now, if you go to a park, there's going to be people there if you're intentionally engaging them. But at a school on a weekend, there's probably not going to be many people there, if any at all. But it's a great opportunity to build bridges because people are going to see that it's been done or they're going to see you doing it and they're going to ask questions and it's going to come back to you and to your church that you cared enough to meet that need.
[00:17:02] Speaker B: Yeah. And in that area, I can personally attest to just the importance of this.
We did each of these while I was at Stuttgart. You know, we had a time where we went into our local park and you know, there are always pieces of playground equipment that need some repair, that just need a fresh coat of paint. And so we took some time to do that, to repair some equipment, to put a fresh coat of paint on. Of course we put the signs up about its wet paint, you know, and had people there. But we had the opportunity of interacting with people.
But we also gained traction a bridge, bridge building thing where we had opportunities for months after that to have conversations with individuals about why did we do this as a church. Same thing in the school one year when our local elementary school, prior to school opening during the summer, we had groups of folks that went in and they painted an accent wall and 2024 classrooms to add a little color to it. I mean, it didn't cost us a whole lot. Cost a lot of time because it's cinder block and that soaks up the paint, you know. But anyway, that was a bridge building opportunity, not only for me as a pastor, but especially for our members who were teachers in that school. Gave them the opportunity to have some in depth conversations about the grace of God, the mercy of God, the love of God. So yeah, those are great bridge building opportunities or community needs as you talk about.
[00:18:49] Speaker C: Yeah, the third main category is that of connection needs. And you know, we are created for one another. We are created for relationships, Relationship with our Savior and then relationship with other people. And a lot of people don't know anybody. Yeah, I mean, we're just caught up in the rat race of going to work, coming home, taking care of family, getting up and going again. Especially the folks that we're attempting to reach. They don't have a church, there's no other, you know, I mean, they, they get up, they see who they live with and who they work with, they come home and so something like a block party, a movie night really gives families something to come to together.
Something that maybe in some communities, some families can't afford to go to the movie or couldn't afford to go to an inflatable park or trampoline park and jump around. So just hosting those events where people come together gives you an opportunity to connect with your neighbors.
Things like baking cookies for your neighbors and just delivering those door to door. Evangelism fits in here. Prayer walking, we did an episode on that a couple of episodes ago. You know, you're prayer walking, you see people outside is an opportunity for you to build a relationship with them. This is anything that gets people together or it helps you connect individually with the people that are around you. So regardless of how you serve, the key is to be intentional in sharing the gospel and giving people a chance to respond. Now we look at these needs that exist and there are a lot of community organizations that do this stuff. Dr. Sam.
[00:20:37] Speaker B: Exactly, exactly.
[00:20:38] Speaker C: There's place, I mean, the food bank gives out food.
You know, places will help. I mean, thrift stores, I mean, it's all kinds of stuff. There are organizations that will do a block party or a movie night. What separates the church from any of those other organizations is the gospel.
[00:20:58] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:20:59] Speaker C: And so this is why it's key that we're not just doing it to look good. And we're really not just doing this to meet a physical need, a community need, or a connection need. We're serving to meet the spiritual need.
[00:21:13] Speaker B: And that's the intentionality of this strategy. Any strategy that we design as church leaders, denominational leaders, what separates us from other organizations is that a key part of our strategy is the sharing of the gospel.
That is the end goal. Yes, we want to meet needs, but we want to meet needs as an opportunity to share the gospel. So be intentional in sharing the gospel as you Serve your local community.
[00:21:53] Speaker C: That's right. And you know, it is easy, yes, to get wrapped up in trying to meet as many needs as possible. But even if you have to scale back on what you can do so that you are strategic of sharing and giving people a chance to respond, that's what I encourage you to do. And if you're listening and think, how in the world or where do we start or how do we start, we would love to help you. So reach out to us, missionizebsc.org and let us just kind of walk through. We'll even come and drive around your community with you and help you discover some needs, help you to look and see what you can do to serve. Now, as you're serving and you're sharing the gospel, you're also inviting people to the big day. And the big day is the third component of the spring outreach strategy. What's the big day? Well, it's Easter. It's already again that natural high attendance Sunday. So, Dr. Sam, how are some ways that you can make Easter the big day?
[00:22:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I just want to repeat what you just said, Clint. Easter is already a big day. Yeah, I mean, it's a big day. Easter, Christmas, those are big days. Mother's Day, that's a big day. Folks are going to come to church somewhere on those days. Majority of people. Now, there are always going to be people that don't. But the majority of the guests that you're going to see in your church are going to come on those three days. Easter, Mother's Day, Christmas, that's it. So we've got to be intentional in being the people who invite them to come. That's why that's the part of making Easter a big day for your church. It's already a big day on the calendar for people. Let's be intentional on making this a big day for your local church. And that spring outreach strategy helps the local church build that momentum that's leading up to Easter. Now, we've got a lot of information on that website that will help you. And a couple of things I would suggest is, you know, anytime we talk about strategy or any kind of new emphasis that we're going to do, we really need to focus on the element of prayer.
If God's not in it, and if we're not asking God to be in it, then we're the ones who are doing all of this. Okay. And we can only go so far on our own power. We need the power of God. So I would encourage you, one thing to do is to have some intentional focus on praying for your Easter service in the weeks prior. Maybe you begin on 316 and you introduce the rest of the spring outreach strategy. And each Sunday you have a focused time of praying for that Serve Local event, asking God to call out workers to serve in that particular ministry, interceding for those who are lost, asking God to open their eyes to the truth of the gospel, to give you the opportunity of having those gospel conversations with folks and the boldness for people who are gonna be sharing and serving.
And maybe you want to have a week where you've got some kind of a prayer piece that each day there's a different focus of praying leading up to Easter. Maybe you started on Serve Local and you take that week proceeding. And each day you're asking your folks to pray in this particular area for this particular need. It may just be one prayer point, but you're really hitting that, hitting it hard.
You're doing that with emails, you're doing that with social media post, whatever it may be to get that in front of your folks. They've got a printed copy of this so that they're joining. And every day people are praying for this.
I think this time between 3:16 and Easter, another thing we need to focus on is just being ready when those guests show up. You know, there are things you can do right now to make preparation and to show that you're expecting them to be there. You know, maybe it's a little spring cleaning in the facilities, the nursery, the hallways, the bathrooms. You know, maybe it's a fresh coat of paint here or there.
It may be as simple as getting those cobwebs out of the windows, you know, that they're going to see when they first walk up or cleaning the sidewalks, you know, whatever it may be, some directional signs, doesn't have to be anything, you know, super expensive, but it's just going to point people in the right place, knowing that you're going to have people come on Easter, they don't come any other time. They may not know anything about your building and where they need to go and where the restrooms are or where the nursery is for their child, you know, so. And then have some people assigned to those doors to greet, to welcome people and guys as you're preparing your message. Like we said, even with the 3:16, keep it simple.
Give a great Easter message. Just a solid presentation of the Gospel and what God has done in Jesus and the power of the resurrection that is available for us through new life in Jesus. And then give a Clear invitation, an invitation to salvation, an invitation to discipleship, an invitation to become part of the church or baptism. But give a clear invitation especially for salvation. And then don't forget the importance of following up on those who attend on Easter. Don't just drop them. Okay? Hey, we had a great attendance. We had, you know, 40 guests who were there for first time and we keep harping on that for a month and we haven't made one phone call. You know, I'll tell you one thing that really helped us out greatly in this area.
We included on our Easter celebration for several years a family portrait. We had people in our church who love to take photos. I mean, they had great cameras. We set up some photo booths around the church in different locations.
And we encouraged our folks, hey, if you'll go during Sunday school or prior to get your picture taken, no problem. Guest after the service, we encourage them to go by. And here's what we do with Follow up. That's digital.
So we print that out and the week after we hand delivered it to each one of those folks gave us the opportunity to have a connection with them. Hey, thank you guys for being here. Appreciate it.
Hope you can come back. We'd like to tell you a little bit more about our church. Was there anything about the presentation of the gospel that you have questions on? It gave the opportunities to do that and you've got a gift that you're giving to them.
So we combined basically a Serve Local kind of idea on Big Day with a follow up that just naturally flowed into follow up.
[00:29:49] Speaker C: Yeah. And if we camp out on follow up for just a minute more, even going back to the serve local component, as you are serving people, you're building a relationship with people you're going to and you're sharing the gospel. You're going to have people that may be saved. You're going to have folks that maybe would like to learn more. That is a great opportunity then for you to follow up with Serve Local folks. If you're hosting an event, you know any of those things. We talked about a food distribution, a no sale, yard sale, block party. I mean, anything that you're doing, you need to register the people that you're encountering so they're coming to your event, they register before they get in. If you're doing a ministry that's maybe more specific toward an individual, you know who that person is already. But be sure you are getting the names and contact information for everybody that you encounter through Serve Local. Then you've got the names and information for those that visit your service on Big Day, whether you do the picture like you're talking about, or you ask, maybe on Easter, you ask everybody to register. You know, a lot of times we pick out the guest and we want guests or, you know, all of our visitors today, please use the word guest number one instead of visitor. But, you know, we'll ask all of our guests if you would register. Maybe use Easter as the day to say, we want to be sure we've got the best contact information. We're going to update our files. So if everybody here today would register, if you'll use the QR code on the screen or if you got cards in the pews, however you want to do that. But you're going to have all of these people that God has brought to you through serve local and through big Day, that your paths have crossed, they've come to a service, an event, maybe somebody encountered them through prayer, walking. But you've got all these people and you've got to go after those people.
We use the word pursue and follow up. And I love that word because it shows intentionality and it doesn't show something that is just slow when happening. You pursue somebody, you're going after them fast, you're going after them hard until you catch them.
So go with that same intensity and passion after the people that God brings across your path as you serve and that he brings into your Easter service. See, as you share the gospel and you give people a chance to respond and you follow up properly, you're then going to have people ready to follow in baptism. And that's the fourth component. And that's the statewide baptism Sunday on April 27th.
[00:32:31] Speaker B: Yeah. Clint, last year was the first time that I can remember as an Arkansas Baptist having a statewide baptism Sunday.
And, man, there was synergy across our state.
We heard from lots of folks, lots of people, lots of churches that participated. We were able on social media to see the photos that were captured of those who were being baptized, that symbolism from one life to a new life in Christ. And it just reminded me that, man, we are better together. I mean, we are. And that energy was incredible.
So I would encourage those. As you plan your statewide, your baptism day for your church, hey, allow other Arkansas Baptists to share, to celebrate along with you by posting that on social media, those pictures of baptism or video of baptism, that just may be what is needed to kind of jumpstart evangelism and an emphasis on evangelism within our state.
So just encourage you to do that. I can't Stress how important it is with a statewide baptism Sunday.
That encouragement that comes from being able to that afternoon or the next day to look on social media to get emails and say, hey, we baptized five people this morning. We baptized nine folks this morning. We baptized one person this morning. You know, and then to see that visible evidence of what God has begun to do in those lives, it just encourages churches and believers to, to share the gospel more.
[00:34:33] Speaker C: That's right.
So we hope that you and your church will join the over 8,500 Arkansas Baptists that have served the last four years. And we look forward to seeing God bless the efforts of Arkansas Baptists. The four components. As a reminder, 3:16 on 3:16. So preach John 3:16 on March 16th. Serve local. Pick a day or multiple days. April 12th, 19th. Big day. Easter Sunday, April 20th. And the next Sunday, April 27th, is our statewide baptism Sunday. Be sure you check out the website absc.orgsos you can register. And when you do that, we will be keeping you up to date as new resources are added. There's already a ton of resources that are there. You're going to want to check out the new evangelism resource that we have. Just know that it goes right along with 3:16 on 3:16. So go check that out. We want to get those to you as well. And we again, we just want to know how we can serve you and help you serve your community. So, Dr. Sam, if there's somebody listening and they're wondering, where do I start?
What do I do?
What steps can I take? What words of encouragement would you leave them with today?
[00:35:54] Speaker B: Hey, let me, let me just leave you with a couple real quickly. Number one, keep in mind you've got a group of folks here that are eager to help you.
[00:36:04] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:36:05] Speaker B: So reach out to us.
There's experience at this table and among our team that, that have been practitioners of what we're talking about.
We can help you with any of those phases that we're talking about.
The second thing that I would say, and this goes along with something we talked briefly hit on recently in one of the episodes where we're talking some about church culture. Hey guys, it's important that you model the change you want to see. Your church will only be as healthy as you are. And so if you want to see a church that invites people on Sundays, on Easter, you invite people on Easter and you share that with folks. You know, you want to see a church that loves and serves its community. You love and serve the community. You want to see a church that shares the gospel. It begins with you sharing the gospel. So model the change you want to see and then please don't get discouraged. In that process.
You may be the only one. Your family may be the only one that's involved. You may not have the numbers that buy into the vision that you're sharing. Don't let that deter you from doing what you know is the right thing to do. You model that and people will start following their shepherd. And then the final thing is just simply this. Hey, just tell the story.
What an awesome opportunity we have on Easter to just tell the story of the resurrection of Jesus.
Incredible opportunity there. So folks, we're praying for you. If we can help in any way, give us a call, send us an email, reach out to us some way. We would love to walk alongside of you.
We'll see you here again in just a couple of weeks. Thank you for listening today.
[00:38:08] Speaker A: Thanks for joining the Missions guys today. If you liked what you heard, rate and review us on your favorite podcasting platform. And to keep up with what is happening in Arkansas missions, visit absc.org missions.
