Outreach begins in the heart during Holy Spirit led worship services. It is the outward demonstration of what happens in people’s hearts during Collective Contact with Jesus. You see, when people encounter God in service, God calls them to express God’s love via reaching out to others who need contact with Jesus.
OUTREACH IS WITNESS
One must have an inner witness—an experience of the goodness of God touching and changing one’s life before one can effectively witness to others about God. “O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusts in Him” (Psalm 34:8). When Word and Worship is transforming congregants, they will transform every atmosphere God places them in, and effective personal witness is the first outreach that every member is to participate in.
On Good Friday, 2021, an old lady named Cheryl came to church with pain from head to toe, saying to herself, “Jesus endured so much more pain for me. I must force my way to service.” She was prayed for by the Pastor Silver and an elder, and God took her pain away. She returned to church on Sunday saying how her son is wondering what is going on in our church after seeing that his mother has not felt that good in over two years. Cheryl’s personal testimony and witness is outreach in her home and everywhere she goes.
Outreach is not a collection of planning and programming. It is a Christian lifestyle forged from the will of God being performed in our lives inspired by collective contact with Jesus. All effective outreach programming stems from effective collective coming into the presence of God. If God is free in the life of the worship service, God will be free to move in outreach initiatives. If God performs miracles in service, miracles will be a part of the outreach as well.
FEEDING THE HUNGRY
St. Andrews Family Church is very big on giving to those who are in need. Truckloads of spinach and potatoes is given to Walking With Winners Drug Rehab and an orphanage at Samancor.
Food packages are also regularly packed for those in the immediate community who are in need. During winter, ladies prepare soup for those who desperately need a warm meal. Every Wednesday, St Andrews Lunch Club provides residents with a solid lunch coupled with a Godly Word of Encouragement.
KNITTING WITH PURPOSE
There are many mothers across South Africa that are completely unprepared for mothering. When their babies leave the hospital, they leave wrapped in newspaper, because no one in their family can afford clothing for them. Such babies have earned the nickname ‘Fish and Chips Babies’, because they leave hospitals wrapped in wrapping very similar to the wrapping of fish and chips. It’s very sad.
St Andrews Family Church’s ladies took it upon themselves to knit clothes for new-borns to reduce the number of babies that leave the hospital without clothing. The clothes they make stretches for continual wear for babies up to two years of age. It’s a beautiful gesture that says to families that Jesus loves the little babies, and He loves you too.
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