How to Make Wednesday Nights Missional - High Pointe in the Park

[James Nored]

A Missional Gathering - High Pointe in the Park - Last night was our “High Pointe in the Park.” On this night we allowed McKinney High School to use our building for its baccalaureate while we headed out to Towne Lake park. This accomplished two things.

First, it let us be a servant to our community by letting them use our building.

Second, it allowed to church to go out to the community in a very visible way. Not only was there great fellowship and great music (thanks to our "Low Pointe" band), but we also had some passersby join us for our meal.

Several High Pointe visitors came out and connected. And there was a young man there named Raymond who was trying to raise funds for his wife’s chemotherapy treatment. He played a few Christian songs, and a number of High Pointe members gave him some money to help with this. All great things caused by us “going” out as Jesus tells us (Mt. 28:10-20).

 

Here is Raymond, the man who met us in the park and started playing some Christian songs in dedication to his wife, who is in chemotherapy. He said, "I'm not a member of your church, but I soon will be!"

Here is one of several High Pointe members who donated towards Raymond's wife chemotherapy treatment.

 

Events are still important in reaching out to people and gathering them. However, rather than always trying to get people into our building, a more missional approach is to have these events where nonchurched people will go and by having events that appeal to them. People still like to eat and listen to music, whether churched or unchurched. People still are looking for relationships and community. By being out in the park on Wednesday, we did far more good than if we had all been in the building on that night, meeting and impacting people we never would have otherwise. In fact, for at least the next eight weeks, our church will be out in parks across the area.

 

What do you think of the idea of having the church go out on Wednesday night (or other nights)? Why don't we do this every night? Would we not meet and impact more people?

 

 

[James Nored]

Bob, yes, the place is not always the determining factor on whether or not something is missional. If something is targeted towards the unchurched and serves them in an area of brokenness but is at a building, it can still potentially be missional. 

 

However, most of the things that you mention - "Seeker Studies, Christian schools, VBS, special events, evangelism series" in my experience are able to at best reach the nominally churched or dechurched. To really reach unchurched people, a "more" missional approach of going directly to them and living incarnationally is needed. All of these things listed assume that there is already interest in things like VBS. While this was once the case in a churched society, increasingly, this is not the case.

 

Pretend for a moment that someone is trying to convert you to Islam, and they offer Islamic Koran school for your kids, or an Islamic VBS, or an Islamic evangelistic series. Would you go? I doubt it. Maybe if you were a lapsed, demosqued person. But if you were really unchurched/unmosqued and encountered an Islamic community somewhere in the rhythms of your daily life, you might get to know them, like them, and then be open to hearing more about Islam--despite its negative baggage.

[Bob Young]

My observation.

1.  Activities away from the building are not necessarily missional, although they can be.  They may have more likelihood of being missional and may present less barriers, but some churches have left the building merely to engage in their "own" activities off-site.

2.  Activities at the building can be missional.  They may have the barrier of people's hesitancy to attend something at the church building, but many people have been brought to Christ through activities at our buildings, and it continues in Seeker Studies, Christian schools, VBS, special events, evangelism series (yes, successful gospel meetings still occur).

The place of the interaction with the larger community is less important.  The fact of such interaction is all important.