Churches have many tasks that arise from their calling to be church. There is worship, education, social justice, and support ministry. Leaning on the vision of Isaiah 42 (from last Sunday), how can Christians and Christian congregations be a light and a blessing to others? How do we go about doing the work of reaching out?

Reaching out needs to begin with a sense of who we are and where we are going. It is not just a matter of reaching out, but of specific people and congregations reaching out. We do this to touch and support people on the journey and to invite people to share their journey with us. Crossroads Church, for example, describes itself as a diverse community of people on a life journey together. As we grow, that sense of identity (who we are and where we are going) needs to grow as well. Discernment of our identity as individuals and churches is an ongoing process. We need to grow as well-rounded people and as passionately committed congregations.

Knowing who we are and where we are going can and should lead us to a better sense of what we have to offer to others. As individuals, this often means getting to know our spiritual gifts and deciding how we will use them in service to others. Similarly, congregational growth includes gaining a better sense of what that particular community of faith can do well to serve and minister. Each congregation will do well to ask itself, "What light and blessing do we have to offer those we hope to reach?"

There are a variety of people and also a variety of Christian congregations. Individual congregations are likely to have specific strengths and will be most effective connecting with and ministering to particular groups of people. Different congregations have different strengths and connect well with different people. We pray that, in the Spirit, all people will have the opportunity of finding a congregation that speaks to them. As congregational self-identity gets clearer, we need to see more clearly those whom we are specifically reaching out to touch. Many times, they will see us first and come. Sometimes they surprise us and we do not welcome them as readily as we should. Each Christian congregation will do well to ask itself: "Who are those people we think we are best equipped to reach and serve?" "What needs do they have?" "Where is their pain?" "What are their questions?"

Healthy and Spirit-filled churches usually have a pretty clear identity and well-defined gifts for ministry. They also include minority voices. Each congregation needs to be respectful of its minority voices – to learn from them. Our task as church is to reach out to those who reflect both our majority and our minority voices. For Crossroads Church, the light we have to share is our commitment to be a place to bring honest questions, to trust in the support of loving community, and discover the gifts God has given us. Our minority voices help keep us from settling in to the comfort of people who are just like us, and push the body to keep being honest with itself and with those we hope to reach.

Reaching out in Jesus' name means to embrace who we are and discover where we want to go. It means to affirm and develop the incredible richness that lies within each of us within us as congregations. Reaching out means that we have to make space in our lives for the company of others -- those who want to journey with us. To be effective in reaching others, as individuals and as congregations, requires investing our time and energy in celebrating and encouraging their journeys as well as our own.

Thanks for blessing me on the journey.

--Jack Price

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