Taking It To the Streets!
Kathleen Johnsen
Kathleen "Kathy" Johnsen is an HR Consultant. Her company, Christian Compliance Resources offers training and other HR services to Christian churches and nonprofits. Kathy volunteers on the OOI editorial team. She is married and has two young adult sons and resides in Monterey.
That’s what Mark Snodgrass, the Pastor at Bentonville Church of the Nazarene in Bentonville, Arkansas, and his congregation are doing during this unique time in our history. Mark and his Outreach Director and OOI Team Leader, Tim Van Allen are coming up with imaginative ways to minister and do outreach during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are some highlights of my interview with Tim.
Driveway Devotionals
Tim holds a weekly gathering in his driveway for his neighbors. Keeping a safe distance from one another, the neighbors check in with each other, pray together, and worship right there in the driveway.
#spareasquare (a takeoff on an old Seinfeld episode) [use graphic image]
Tim realized that the church had an abundance of toilet paper that was just sitting in a closet because the church was not meeting weekly. In addition to the toilet paper the church had, they invited the congregation to bring donations of toilet paper and other essential items they may have lying around.
The church then got the word out to the community to come pick up toilet paper, food, or other essential items they might need. This was a clever way to spotlight the church’s Food Pantry which was already up and running. One of the local news weather personalities put it on his social media news feed which helped create a lot of buzz in the community.
Drive-By Communion
A few months ago, Bentonville started offering communion service once a month. When the church had to close its doors due to the coronavirus, Pastor Snodgrass started offering monthly communion service via drive-by communion.
The communion service is primarily for the congregation, but others from the community can participate. Families load up the cars, and bring their aging parents and children; they really appreciate the opportunity to continue this important monthly sacrament. A few have even rolled up on their bicycles and some just walk over to the church.
When the church reopens its doors, they will return to serving communion inside the church in the traditional manner, but this has been an inventive means of meeting the needs of the congregation during this time. It has also been another creative way for the community to see the church in a fresh, new, light.
“Pop-Up” Outreach Opportunities
Tim says an underlying blessing of this time of sheltering in place and social distancing is what he calls “pop-up” opportunities for outreach. This has been a time when someone sees a need in the community and they just pull together the resources and get the need met creatively and quickly. At times in the past, the church would get bogged down in the approval process, the scheduling, the communication plans, etc. Tim hopes that when the church returns to the new normal it will incorporate this innovative, spontaneous approach to “pop-up” outreach opportunities.
A few of the “pop-up” opportunities have been:
- Partnering with another church in the community to feed the health care workers when Mercy Medical Center shut down the cafeteria. The churches reached out to small locally owned restaurants to prepare the meals. The churches pay the restaurants for the prepared meals and deliver them to the hospital for the health care workers.
- Homemade greeting cards for the hospital workers and patients. This outreach opportunity was ideal for children and the whole family to get involved. The greeting cards are delivered to the hospital and then hospital administration scans the cards and the cards are posted on the hospital intranet and electronic message boards.
- A couple of congregants came up with the idea for a Puzzle Swap box. They saw that many people were looking for entertaining, family-friendly activities. Realizing many people had already put together the jigsaw puzzles they own and new puzzles were hard to come by, they put a big box outside the church and filled it with jigsaw puzzles. It works like the little free library boxes, but instead of books, you can swap puzzles.
Encouragements
Tim encourages churches to find opportunities to get the whole congregation involved in the outreach activities. Right now, it is particularly meaningful as people are looking for ways to serve and make a difference in their communities while they are stuck at home and there are no competing activities going on.
Try to get away from focusing on the numbers in ministry. The focus should not be on how many the ministry/program serves but on just helping one person experience Jesus’s love.
Tim is eager to point out, “The community is finally starting to see us. We built a beautiful new church building a year or two ago and we want people to come through our doors. Well, this pandemic has really caused us to refocus our energies and go outside to the community. And in doing so the community is really starting to see what our church is all about. They see we care and are willing to come to them to help.”
Jesus encourages us in Acts 1:8, “And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” I love Bentonville’s example of going outside the church’s walls. Friends, it’s time to take it to the streets.
