Many church outreach efforts lack impact due to marketing-driven approaches, unmet community needs, and internal focus. John Hughes shares the Listen, Look, Lead model that emphasizes relationship-building, understanding local needs, and servant leadership to foster meaningful community engagement.
Driving down the street the other day, I saw a group of people passing out food in front of their church. The volunteers wore matching shirts as they passed packages to a long line of cars. I smiled as I continued my journey; I love it when churches reach out to their communities. The challenge is that we do a lot of outreaches with little impact.
There are three potential problems with church outreach.
1. Some outreach efforts are designed to market the church. Marketing is a one-way conversation with the community. While appreciative of the efforts, residents see the activity as an attempt to get more members to attend church. The signs promote the church, the stickers advertise the church’s name, and the concomitant Gen X videographer reinforces the marketing agenda.
2. Church outreach efforts may not meet the community’s real needs. It is the ultimate mistake to assume a need in a community without doing your homework. Outreach efforts lasting eight hours once a month will never meet a community’s more pressing needs and issues, such as helping single parents, working with the homeless, addressing human trafficking, hunger, and the concerns of seniors.
3. Churches may unintentionally model that faith is only for personal and spiritual development and doesn’t apply to social issues. Churches have incredible resources: a weekly communication system, shared values, educated leaders, discretionary income, and facilities, and yet these resources are focused internally and not externally, leaving members unaware of how to apply their faith to have a social impact.
I call traditional outreach efforts fast food outreach. It’s time to rethink outreach. After years of working in communities nationwide, I have developed the Listen, Look, and Lead model, which provides a practical framework for churches to build new relationships with their communities.
Here is a snapshot of the three critical components of the Listen, Look, Lead model.
Listen
Pastors and congregants are trained to talk but not listen. Imagine the wealth of insight and relationships that could be developed if churches regularly listened to various sectors within a community (including businesses, homeowners, renters, schools, and faith communities). Church leaders should meet in person with people from a variety of sectors in the community to build relationships and learn about them and their community. Two important points for building relationships: First, follow the 80/20 rule—listen 80% of the time and ask questions and talk 20%. Second, be Switzerland—stay neutral on hot-button issues (politics, racial justice, sexuality, gender, income inequality, etc.). This is important to build relationships with a variety of people.
Look
The model outlines seven roles that churches can play in the community while building relationships and capacity: (forgive my alliteration) place, projects, partnerships, people-to-people, provider, policies, and pastor as broker. Finding the correct role determines how the church will respond to needs, issues, and opportunities—role determines relationship. For example, if you decide to be a provider of services, ask if the church can write grants and provide the strong financial systems and staff to offer services. I have seen small and large churches take on this role and be very successful.
Lead
A fundamental mistake church leaders make is assuming that because they are leaders in a congregation that they are leaders in the community. The good news is that the servant leadership approach used in many churches is applicable in a community if you avoid critical pitfalls. First, focus on serving others. Whatever project is developed in the community should not benefit the church; it must help another group. Secondly, bridges should be built across different community sectors, including businesses, homeowners, renters, schools, and faith communities. A person with extensive relationships throughout a community becomes an important leader.
I wonder what would happen if church planters focused first on the external community before starting services. What would happen if small and large congregations stopped their outreach efforts and started to engage their communities by listening, looking and leading?
Related Resources
- 50 Ways to Take Church to the Community, a free Lewis Center resource
- 4 Key Characteristics of Missional Congregations by Doug Powe
- Organizing a Missional Community by Doug Powe and Henry H. Knight III
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