Reach1

• Reach1 through compassionate prayer. Pray that God would perform a work of grace in their heart. Romans 10:1, “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.”
• Reach1 through bold proclamation. Proclaim Christ through evangelism, Bible studies, and acts of mercy. Ephesians 6:19, “and [pray] also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel.”

Reaching Our Jerusalem

The old adage is true: if you aim at nothing you’ll hit it every time.  With this in mind, we must have a goal and then we must establish objectives to meet that goal.  As a church, one of our goals has been given to us by our Lord in Acts 1:8 (ESV) “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”  Our Lord speaks here of the necessity placed upon believers to evangelize. And while this imperative is bestowed on the individual believer, it must also be a task for us as a church.  This is one of the reasons why we planted Bible Baptist Church—to be “witnesses of Jesus Christ”–to share the good news about him and to provide a place in which believers can grow to become mature disciples of Jesus Christ.  So with the divine goal of being witnesses in Jerusalem, BBC is now engaged in an outreach program called Reaching Our Jerusalem (ROJ). (Download an ROJ brochure). We’d like to share the framework of this program with you.

Scriptural Objective.  The scriptural objective for ROJ is to engage in mission based on Acts 1:8.

Purpose. To “touch” every home within a ten mile radius of our church. The touch can be personal, evangelistic, and literary depending on the receptivity of those we contact. Our primary piece of literature will be a card that can be completed and mailed back to the church.

Approach. It is an intentional and systematic outreach program.  It is intentional.  This program recognizes that outreach is a planned activity. Therefore this plan helps to facilitate the fulfillment of our mission.  Our approach is also systematic.  We begin with our building as the center and “work our way out.” We want to reach those closest to us first. Each circle represents a two mile radius.

Timeline. The goal is to reach every home in the target area over the next five years.  This translates into one circle per year.

Investment.  ROJ requires a commitment in at least three areas.

• Time: A commitment to going door-to-door regularly throughout the year. We must also have a readiness to receive, minister to, and follow-up with visitors. We must be ready to set aside the time to disciple converts.
• Treasure: A willingness to invest in the cost of printing literature to distribute and other materials to keep the program before the church.
• Prayer: We need to invoke the blessing of the Lord upon our efforts for His glory.

Anticipated Result. By God’s grace, we as a church hope to experience quantitative (numerical) and qualitative (spiritual) growth (cf. Acts 16:4-5).

As you think of it, would you please pray that God will abundantly bless our efforts through ROJ. Ultimately, this is a way to get us doing what all churches, including new churches, should be doing—sowing the seed of the gospel.