“When are you coming back? It’s no fun when y’all aren’t here.” Anyone would have melted if they looked into his big brown eyes. The small boy clung to the teenagers who had completed a day of service at a local apartment complex. It was just around the corner from Riverland Hills Baptist Church in Irmo, but it was a world away. Something was happening among the teenagers that day. They were being infected with the missional virus.
The teenagers and parent leaders began to talk among themselves. They were heard saying, “Why can’t we come here every week? Maybe we could begin a tutoring program here. Is anyone responsible for this apartment complex?” If the church doesn’t take responsibility for them, who will?
Jesus prayed, “Thy kingdom come. On earth as it is in heaven.” Taking the whole gospel to the whole world includes those who aren’t like us just around the corner, and the whole gospel includes restoration and redemption from a broken life now. The church must intervene to break the cycle of poverty, brokenness, and fatherless homes. As the church serves, it earns the right to be heard and the ability to tell them the gospel.
The church has done well at setting up programs and worship services to “reach” people. We are willing to change music styles and wardrobes in order to make others feel more comfortable in our gatherings. All of these efforts are a great start to doing whatever it takes to reach the lost, but regardless of what we do, some will not come. Movement will occur when we begin to break out of the walls and penetrate areas of lostness in our city and begin to say, “We will go to them and be responsible for their understanding of the gospel.”
What if churches began to look at different areas of the city and work together to take responsibility for each area? What if individuals in the church began to take responsibility for retirement centers and recreation leagues? What if the church began to ask schools how they could serve them? What if believers took the church into the city?
The missional virus is contagious. Be careful. If you become infected, it may cause you to see the world through a different lens. It has the power to break your heart. The virus causes you to change how you spend your time and causes you to question what is important. If you want to protect yourself from it, hold tight to the pew and do not venture outside the walls of the church building. And whatever you do, stay away from infected teenagers. They cause it to spread like wildfire!
– Clamp is evangelism group director for the South Carolina Baptist Convention.