ENGAGE
Passionately ENGAGE Your Community
Jesus gave the greatest demonstration of engaging community. He left the streets of gold in heaven to walk the streets of dirt on earth. Jesus was called ‘friend of sinners’. He deliberately spent time with people who were sinners. He engaged them right where they were at.
Engaging culture and community is all about building bridges of friendships, not religious walls with rules and regulations. As Jesus’ followers, if we really want to be like Him then we need to ask ourselves:
Are we truly friends of sinners?
Are our non-believing friends/neighbours/family being compelled to become Christ followers through their relationship with us?
Engaging is the starting point in the disciple-making process.
Practical Ideas:
Before you begin - PRAY!
Ask the Holy Spirit ‘Who’ and ‘How’
Who: does He wants you to intentionally connect with;
How: can you regularly connect with that person or those people? Eg. might be walks; might be to meet at a cafe every week; meet at the park if you have small children; gather around an interest or hobby (art/sport/music).
The opportunities are endless!
Remember the intention behind all these ideas is to make connections and share about Jesus
Outreach:
Local shops or park: Go out intentionally to hand out Hope cards; pray for people and share Jesus.
Holiday Events: Use common events, like Valentines Day, Easter and Christmas to be creative with sharing the love of Jesus. Eg. Valentines Day: Buy flowers for your neighbours and let them know about the love of Jesus; Give out roses to strangers at the shops; write love notes from God and put them in your neighbours letter boxes or under the windshield wipers on cars at the shops. Or at Easter: hand out easter eggs or home-made cookies to neighbours and friends.
Community Events: Get involved in your community. You or your group could be part of ‘Clean up Australia’ Day; you could intentionally join community groups to help feed elderly people, the homeless, or walk elderly people’s dogs.
Minister to the Homeless
Join Hobby or Interest Clubs/Groups
Social Media Platforms: Use these to share Jesus; pray for sick; release prophetic words. You can do this personally or as a group.
Reverse Word Of Knowledge: When someone tells you about their sickness use the standard line, “Hope this doesn’t sound crazy but…” and offer prayer.
Waiters and Waitresses: When the waiter or waitress says, “Is there anything else you need?”, that’s when you can say, “Hey, we’re getting ready to pray for our meal, is there anything we could pray for you about? Especially if you need physical healing.”
Tools:
Below are some useful tools taken from the Silence Breakers course to help you share the gospel in a practical and visual way. If you haven't already, we recommend the free 12-week course to help you 'believe the truth, defeat the lies, and break the silence' in your journey of engaging people in the discipleship process.
You can find more information here: www.silencebreakers.com.
The Bible is God’s living love letter. It is alive and active. It is still the best selling book in the world! When you read the Bible it teaches you about who God is and is powerful to change you from the inside out! You can help new believers gain free access to the Bible using the following links: