Think Little to Make a Big Impact
Lisa Lewis
Lisa Lewis is the Associate Director of Community Bridges at Valley Church in West Des Moines, Iowa. Her passion is to equip the Body of Christ to use their God-given gifts and talents to love God and love their neighbors.
In the summer of 1940, hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers found themselves trapped on Dunkirk, a beach in Northern France. They were cut off by the German military and it seemed inevitable that they’d all be killed or captured. Military destroyers were too big to get to the beach for a troop evacuation. And without these troops, Britain was left unbelievably vulnerable to Nazi invasion. Some feared this might cost them the War. But a creative, almost unthinkable plan was hatched. Britain began assembling a rescue team of fishing boats, speedboats, life rafts, recreational yachts, and whatever small private boats they could find. In total, 850 private boats left England and set sail for France to begin a truly miraculous rescue mission. Over a week, the “Little Boats of Dunkirk” as they were called, helped rescue 336,000 soldiers.
We all want to join God in His grand rescue mission. We want to reach the lost, but it can seem impossible to get to them. Like the Allies, maybe it’s time to get creative, time to “think little.” We might just need our own fleet of small, determined fishing boats on a shared mission.
At Valley Church, we dreamed of seeing our church body—each person like their own little fishing boat—joining together to reach spiritual explorers. So, we scrapped what we knew about church-wide outreach events and decided to try something out of the box. We launched a nine-day celebration of our community called Love You Des Moines Days. With 8000+ attendees, we could call it our largest annual outreach event. But it’s actually 120 mini events all on a shared mission. During these nine days, the people of Valley Church use their skills, passions, and hobbies to host free activities for our community. If someone at Valley loves fishing, they host a fishing clinic. A classic film lover hosts a watch party. Small business owners facilitate a networking event. Whatever somebody in our church family loves to do, we simply invite the community to join in! So instead of one major event, we have hundreds of mini-events like tennis clinics, motorcycle rides, book swaps, drone simulations, cooking classes, women’s health seminars, jewelry-making classes, and so on.
You might be wondering why we take this approach, and you aren’t the only one! When we shared the Love You Des Moines Days concept, many of our church members didn’t quite get it because it wasn’t like anything they’d done before. It wasn’t a mission trip, or service project, or big outreach presentation and it didn’t FEEL as godly or meaningful as any of those. But our church members stepped up and during the first Love You Des Moines Days it clicked and we haven’t looked back.
"Our church family gets a glimpse of how God can use their gifts and passions. Most people don’t tackle a service project every week. But they go to work multiple times a week."
Here’s why we love this approach:
- It honors God’s commandment to love our neighbors… all types of neighbors. This is where it all begins. We want to be the heart, the hands, and the feet of Jesus to the people of greater Des Moines. When we mobilize a thousand Christ-followers in these mini-events, we reach a wider variety of individuals. We get to know people with different backgrounds, ages, socioeconomic statuses, ethnicities, languages and more.
- It’s fun! Getting to know neighbors can be meaningful AND fun when it involves something you already enjoy doing. God uniquely fashioned each of us, and this approach embraces the gifts and passions He gave us! Our joy and enthusiasm draw people in.
- It’s relational. We build relationships with the hopes that hearts will become open to the Good News. These relationships often blossom best in smaller settings and when we meet because of shared interests, we’ve already got a head start on building a friendship.
- It builds trust. We want to share the Good News wisely and we believe that rarely happens when somebody feels tricked. So at Valley, we have a firm “no bait-and-switch” policy. If you come to a Christmas service, you expect to hear the Christmas story. People should know what they’re signing up for when they walk in the door. During Love You Des Moines Days, this means that there’s no surprise gospel presentation. We hardly mention Valley Church. If you show up for an event about cupcake decorating, it should be about cupcakes. People constantly ask us, “What’s the catch? Why do you do this?” And when we can answer genuinely that we’re just following God’s call to love our neighbors, we generate tremendous goodwill. With that earned trust, God often opens the doors for spiritual conversations.
- It’s a launching pad. Love You Des Moines Days is all about loving our community for nine specific days. But it’s also about the other 356 days. Our church family gets a glimpse of how God can use their gifts and passions. Most people don’t tackle a service project every week. But they go to work multiple times a week. And they enjoy their hobbies every chance they get. So, if we can all get in the habit of using those ongoing activities to build relationships with others, we open up countless more opportunities to share the Good News.
I think back to the tale of the Little Boats of Dunkirk and can only imagine what a glorious sight it was when hundreds of boats approached the beach. Small on their own, but mobilized together, they accomplished something remarkable. This is the amazing reality of God’s plan for reaching the lost. Each believer plays their part, with their gifts and in their spheres of influence. So here in Des Moines, we’ll continue to “think little” and watch in awe as God reaches our neighbors through sports tournaments, art classes, and book clubs.
Valley Church’s mission is mobilizing everyone’s God-given potential to deeply love Christ and their neighbors. Nearly 15 years ago, Valley Church launched an initiative called “Love You Des Moines” to intentionally love and serve the Greater Des Moines community. Building upon that commitment, Valley Church opened the Valley Community Center as a gift to the community in 2013. This 29,000-square-foot facility on a 35-acre campus hosts over 150,000 guests annually.
