Here is what I would do (and have done!):
1) Start a Prayer Walker Team.
2) Pick a consistent day and time (Sunday afternoons and/or evenings in the Summer often work well) and begin to Prayer Walk. (If at first you can't get anyone interested then you go ahead and start, take and show pictures, and talk about the people you met and talked to and the experiences you had each week at church.)
3) After each organized prayer walk have a mission debrief: "What did you see?" / "Who did you see/interact with?" / "How did God speak to you?" (You will get tons of data and info from these debrief sessions, and what you are revealing through them are the needs in your community/area that God can use you to incarnationally begin to meet. (When I lead the "iWalk" trainings I talk the folks who show up for the training through this process.)
4) Plan on setting a goal of covering a specific area or areas that are of significance to your church and congregation. Hang up a map and highlight the streets walked until the map is completely highlighted. Once you achieve that goal, celebrate the accomplishment with a worship and celebration time but also use it to begin to envision and plan ministry outreaches to that area based on the "What? Who? and How?" questions above.
5) The next step is the surveying of that specific area so you can find out who you are being called to reach and what their real-life needs are. As you collect the hard data from your target area (which you have already covered in prayer) crunch the info and follow up with incarnational ministry and outreaches to that area that you have prayed for and surveyed. The key here is that you are letting God speak to you from and through your mission field and you are responding now in relevant ministry to these needs that have been revealed. (I can provide you a survey that is adaptable to your church or community.)
6) God will begin bringing you people through this process, and now you have got to be prepared to and begin to welcome them and help them find real connections and to help facilitate the building of relationships with others who can help them grow in their faith and their relationship with Jesus. The real people you will be reaching truly want the church to be both relevant, and a place where they can make real connections and have real relationships. Having and starting Small groups and Home groups that you can plug them Into is key here.
7) As your prayer walkers begin to rediscover their community through walking through it and feeling the burden of the Lord for specific areas of need or ministry possibilities, it is also important to empower them and help them begin to get involved in real ministry in these area. This is the point where I would always start a "SWAT (Servants With Angelic Tendencies) Team." Which was a charted breakdown of areas of ministry and need revealed through prayer walking that you can organize specific teams made up of persons with a heart for that area of need or ministry. Then, turn them loose to be the Church through these teams. It's a "High Trust, Low Control, with High Accountability" empowerment and I can answers specific questions about how to do this.
SWAT TEAM (team examples)
1) The Prayer Walker Team
2) Community Disaster Response Team (aka DRT or "Dirt" Team)
3) Community Crisis or Critical Incident Intervention Team
4) School & Community Outreach Team
5) Community Survey Team
6) Hospital & Home Visitation Team
7) Addiction & Recovery Team
Etc. (The idea here is that you identify and empower teams of people to work together to meet the revealed needs in your mission field)
Then...
You repeat the process. I have found prayer walking to be a tremendous source of inspiration, interaction and information regarding real "Jesus With Skin On" (incarnational) ministry. And, as you empower your SWAT teams, you create a leadership factory that helps produce real people in real ministry in real ways in their community.
If I can be of any help to you or your church in any aspect of this process, please do not hesitate to reach out.
Keep on Keepin' on IN Jesus!
- Rob Schmutz
Jeremiah 29:11-13
2 comments:
In our 1st prayer walk we had contact with a blended family not married who expressed a need to find a church where they felt comfortable. They were very receptive to us. We invited them to our church. This experience was on a Sunday evening 6-7pm. Others we saw we exchanged waves and smiles.
Hey, Lenn! That’s awesome! Keep covering your city in Prayer, and every time you do work through the assessment process: 1) What did you see. 2) Who did you interact with? 3) How did God speak to you? The mission field will reveal to you the ministry that is needed. Then, when it does, take prayerful action to meet the needs of the community God has called you to reach. Galatians 6:9
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