Outreach Encouragement: Intentionality
Tom Green
Tom Green is the Outreach Influence Pastor for Organic Outreach International. He leads, trains, and coaches Outreach Influence Team leaders throughout the world. He also is the lead writer of the Outreach Influence Team resources, available at www.OrganicOutreach.org/resources.
If we plan our outreach with intentionality it will make it interesting, fun, and in many cases fruitful. My wife Jill and I were in Hawaii on vacation recently and while we had been there for only a very short time, we had already met people from many different locations around the world. This gave me some ideas to help me be intentional as I sought to reach out to folks.
As we pulled into the parking area of a very popular hiking spot, I decided to kindly say hello to everyone we met, and if that went over well, ask them where they were from. Because it was already mid-morning this would give us the opportunity for conversation with lots of people both on the way in and also on the way out during our 2-3 hour hike.
All and all we met people from 14 different states in the U.S. and 9 different countries. In most cases, people would reciprocate by asking us where we were from. In many cases, this would lead to further conversation and in some cases, it would allow us to share a little bit about our relationship with Jesus.
In one particular instance, we met a couple that said they had only been married for a few days and they were in Hawaii on their honeymoon. This led to further conversation and we were able to share how we met in high school and have now been married for 45 years. When this young couple asked us how it was possible to be happily married after 48 years (this includes our total time together) it opened a truck-sized opening to share our conversion story along with the Gospel message to a couple who shared that they both had Christian roots but had walked away from the faith. We spent a significant amount of time together, talking and praying together before we parted ways. This was probably the most pleasurable time during our entire vacation. The view of the beautiful Waimea Canyon in the background was certainly no hindrance to our experience.
A huge part of successful outreach is giving thought to how to make our outreach efforts pleasant and easy to enter into—and to do this we have to be intentional!
We’d love to hear some of your stories of how you’ve approached outreach intentionally in your daily life. If you’d like to share your story with us, please email Robin (robin@organicoutreach.org).