What do you mean, the end of outreach?

The end of outreach as we know it. For all it's intended purpose outreach no longer works. This is not to say we haven't done a few things right, but on the whole we must be doing many things wrong. I think there are some very fundamental reasons why outreach no longer works, reasons that are relevant in any age. But, as the facts indicate, it is working less with each year, with each generation. I sincerely believe we are at the point in the history of the church where we need to ask the hard questions that I hope will mark the end of outreach as we’ve known it.

And I believe we would do well to so distance ourselves from the typical practices and mindsets of outreach that it will require us to use a different word. As communicators we’ve wrestled long with this problem. We’ve studied the unchurched and pre- Christian reactions to outreach, we’ve listed the numerous qualities we’d really like to convey, to Christians and non-Christians alike. For the sake of our planning and creative development we’ve come to describe this distinction as: withreach.

The scope of this article goes beyond pragmatism (what works). It also takes into view how people feel about outreach (both the outreach-er and the outreach-ee) and how God views outreach (surely God will bless anything that puts warm bodies in the pews).

Now, this is no small thing. We are in desperate need of something to blast us out of our current thinking and approach. If you are wondering whether it really makes that big of a difference, bring withreach thinking into your next planning meeting. Examine your goals, strategies, approach, and presuppositions based on the definition we will describe here (and expand on over the next few weeks). And I bet you’ll see positive, maybe even dramatic changes right away.

A word to busy pastors... I am sensitive to the demands on your time, so I will just touch on the most important differences between withreach and outreach here. If you want, just scan the lists, or print out this article (request the full whitepaper if you’d like all the links and companion articles in one printable, email format), and come back, for we will be exploring every facet of this important topic and more of the practical, real-world strategies to which it clearly leads.

Read the entire article here