Article

"The church is God's appointed agency for the salvation of men. It was organised for service, and its mission is to carry the gospel to the world." E G White

Last week's BUC News carried two articles on outreach initiatives led by Adventist members, highlighting the importance of faith inclusion in community services.

The article captioned: 'Faith and Health Event Held at Watford Police Station': Adventist Church in UK and Ireland | National Site and 'One Vision and Macmillan Cancer Support Partnership Launch: A New Dawn for Community Support': Adventist Church in UK and Ireland | National Site has received much enquiry regarding church outreach initiatives.

The articles written by Enoch Kanagaraj, a member of Stanbrough Park church and the founder and CEO of One Vision charity, and Sharon Platt-McDonald, BUC Director and One Vision charity trustee, feature their engagement with external agencies.

Kanagaraj and Platt-McDonald have collaborated with national, voluntary, statutory, charitable and government agencies at various events to raise the importance of culturally sensitive service provision and the impact of faith perspectives on health and social care uptake.

Several of these collaborative events have been held in Adventist churches, which has engendered interest in our Adventist beliefs and practices. The impact and influence have been far-reaching.

Community response

BUC Director Sharon Platt-McDonald discussed the varying responses community leaders gave to her recent presentations on 'Collaborative Community Engagement – The Impact of Faith and Cultural Perspectives' and 'Faith and Cultural Implications in Cancer Care'.

She recounts comments such as:

"Your Church does such a lot for the community. It's great to see people of faith caring for the holistic needs of individuals and not just their spiritual wellbeing."

One attendee stated, "I like how your faith is woven into your presentations and the evidence-based research you present on the positive impact faith can have on all aspects of our lives."

Another stated, "I am now visiting a local Seventh-day Adventist church because of their community outreach in my area."

Another respondent enthused about the Adventist Church's response to the Covid-19 pandemic during lockdown: "The practical help your church gave to the community during the pandemic was critical to the survival of so many who were unable to help themselves."

Impactful outreach

Following last week's articles, members from various churches contacted Platt-McDonald requesting advice for getting their church more involved in impactful outreach. Here are a few suggestions:

• Put the desire for community ministry and outreach in prayer to God.
• Learn how to understand and reach your community through specialist organisations such as https://www.ukcommunityfoundations.org/our-impact/understanding-local-need.
• Check neighbourhood profiles or annual council reports for your local area to get a better idea of the community's demographics.
• Do a needs assessment of the community to ascertain key and prevalent needs.
• Identify community-based initiatives that meet a need.
• Link in with local networks who are already involved with outreach in your area and shadow them/participate in their events to gain experience.
• Undertake a SWOT analysis of any intervention you decide on. This measures your intended initiatives' strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
• Ask yourself, your team, or your church whether your outreach is what the community really needs at this time.
• Ensure you have enough team members and relevantly skilled individuals /volunteers to undertake the initiative.
• Ascertain any associated costs with running your programme/project/initiative/outreach and assess whether you have enough funds to do your intervention well.
• Establish relevant community funding/government-funded schemes/grants/sponsorship, as appropriate, that may be available/willing to fund your initiative.
• Meet with key organisationsand agents, e.g. NHS establishments, social care providers, voluntary agencies, etc. to ascertain areas of deficit/need in their service provision and discuss how your church/health ministries/community services team may be able to assist.
• Prepare a proposalto bring to the above agencies.
• Instigate ongoing prayer cover in groups/teams for the ministry you are planning.
• Prayer walk the area in which you will undertake the outreach.

Engaging the church

Your community outreach should be a 'whole church' effort instead of just a 'departmental' project. In this way, the entire church owns the outreach and is invested in its success and evangelism potential. Here are a few tips:

• Engage the church board in the planning of outreach initiatives.
• Decide on intervention programmes as part of the church's mission.
• Follow the I Will Go strategy relating to our area of mission/outreach: https://www.iwillgo.org/
• EmbracetheTotal Member Involvement frameworkestablished by the GC https://www.globaltmi.org/
• Get your church involved in local authority programmes/interventions ( e.g. addressing social issues or engaging in wellbeing projects).
• Get your church to place on its calendar of events the annual national/local events, e.g. community fairs, annual health fairs, etc. and get involved to become more 'visible' in its communities.
• Invite local MPs and community and faith leaders (other denominations) to your events.
• Always report the project outcomes, including data collected, to your church.

Reflection

• Take time to evaluate and audit your outreach:
• What worked well?
• Why was it successful?
• What did not work well?
• Why was it unsuccessful?
• Which aspects worked best or least?
• What has changed as a result of your intervention? (list benefit to the community)
• Use the learning as a benchmark for future outreach.

Resources

Some suggested books to inspire your outreach are:

• The Role of the Church in the Community, E G White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons (July August September 2016)
• Burst the Bubble: Finding Your Passion for Community Outreach by Sung K Kwon
• Adventist Churches That Make a DIFFERENCE by May-Ellen and Gasper Colón
• For The Least of These by Nathan Brown
• Creating Space for Strangers: thinking afresh about mission and the church by David Evans with Kathryn Scherer