Angel Food for Christmas

My grandchildren are so much fun to watch as we get closer to Christmas. They have a sparkle in their eyes when they talk about opening their gifts on Christmas morning.

I decided to capture some of their enthusiasm last week by filming a promo video for Angel Food, one of our most active outreach ministries.

Click on this short video featuring the Angel Food Angel and Santa Claus for a good laugh.

How to Start a Community Outreach Ministry

Community outreach connects the local church with the people in their city by meeting existing needs. Starting or adding Christian ministry initiatives will help positively impact your local community and grow your church membership. These services will help you engage your community, attract and give help to needy individuals, build relationships with the community and share the faith.

Church outreach ministries look at their community, assesses the needs and say, ‘Our community needs this, and as a church we feel like God has given us the resources and skills, and so we’re going to meet that need and use that as the our vehicle through which we’ll share Christ’. This ministry can have many different expressions.

For example, you have people in communities who are hungry or need help with clothing. Our church saw the toll that the recession was taking on families and engaged Angel Food Ministries to provide quality food items at half the cost. Years ago we identified a need for value priced clothing so we opened the Maranatha Storehouse. Another example would be a church that realizes its community deals with alcohol and drug abuse. That church might want to start a recovery program such as Living Free to address the issue.

Other popular community outreach ideas include jail or prison ministries, after-school programs for children or yard clean up for elderly and disabled. The nature of the ministry depends on the needs of the specific community where the church is located.

Here are some simple steps that will help you plan for a successful start up for your church outreach ministry:
• Develop a detailed ministry plan and share your vision with church leadership.
• Be prepared to resource your vision with time, talent, prayer and even your own money.
• Recruit, organize and develop a team of volunteers to implement your outreach programs.
• Develop a website to communicate your services and success stories.
• Evaluate success and recognize volunteers and donors.

The American church is by some standards losing its influence on society. One way to regain a voice in our communities is to harness the strength of the church through community outreach. For more information, call our Outreach Hotline at (763) 315-7111.

March Madness

February was a good month for me. Opportunities to reach out appeared daily. I found a new sense of purpose as I discovered blogging. I began reading again. The gym became an almost daily purgative to the press of ministry. Most importantly, my heart is turning more and more toward the needs of other people who are struggling amidst the economic downturn. (Probably needful for a pastor.)

Now March.

My assistant, Adam, and I have been counting days until the first day of spring. With the average high temperature at 34 degrees and college basketball playoffs in the air, I am making a commitment to Go MAD in March. That’s right. I am going to Go Make A Difference this month.

This month I am committing myself to:
• Keep my ears open for how God wants to use community outreach in a BIG way.
• Work closer with our food shelf Emergency Food Shelf Network

• Look for more ways to use our church facility for public access.
• Corroborate with local pastors and public school principals to promote mutual goals.
• Honor and acknowledge the value that lay leadership brings to the ministry.
• Help feed more hungry people through Angel Food Ministries.

What awesome opportunities to make a difference await us this month.

I’m going MAD in March! Join me?

The Church Has Left the Building

One of the most popular and rewarding outreach ministries is servant evangelism. SE involves doing acts of kindness for people who don't expect it, simply to show that God loves them.

Servant teams regularly reach out to the community through Operation Outreach, a high energy, group activity that provides opportunities for everyone, including families who want to serve together. Typical our servant evangelism projects include:

Rock the Neighborhood One Wednesday night a month in June, July and August, Operation Outreach becomes a church-wide event as hundreds of outreachers put on yellow t-shirts and invade our communities to wash cars, clean windshields, mow yards, and pick up trash, impacting people in a positive and practical way with the love of God.

Angel Food Ministries Each month we host Angel Food, a food program that sells food boxes, filled with meat, vegetables, eggs, and much more for only $30. We have mobilized hundreds of workers, many who come from the community to help distribute food and have also fed thousands of families who don't attend our church.

Baskets of Blessing Thanksgiving is a time when hundreds of needy families in our community look forward to receiving a food box complete with turkey and all the trimmings donated and delivered to their home by LWCC congregates.

CrestView Toystore Nothing says Christmas to a child more than toys. Yet the families of many children who attend CrestView School are unable to afford them. LWCC and Maranatha Christian Academy annually donate thousands of toys and distribute them to

Homes for Heroes Life must go on for the families of deployed soldiers. When a home maintenance or repair need arises our Homes for Heroes team will perform yard work, and fix or repair projects to demonstrate support for our troops.

Serving others often involves going to where they are. A small act of kindness nudges a person closer to God, often in a profound way as it bypasses ones mental defenses. This often results in a heart open to the gospel – a gospel of love.

Help From On High

Last September our church undertook Angel Food Ministries, a food program that sells food boxes, filled with meat, vegetables, eggs, and much more for $30.

We have always embraced feeding the hungry at Living Word Christian Center but didn't know the tremendous response we would have. In six months we have mobilized hundreds of workers, many who come from the community to help distribute food and have also fed thousands of families who don't attend our church.

The best way to appreciate the impact of this wonderful outreach is to hear the thankful expressions from our customers and to see the looks of happiness on the faces of our workers.

The economy may be exacting its toll on our communities, but Angel Food is fighting back with help from on high.