Organic Ministry

One of the things we value at Severn River Church is mission-driven creativity. It is a response to the many ministry programs that have been built to be Plug and Play in church circles. We want to be more intentional about measuring whether the ministry is needed and if it is meeting the needs of our target area. A couple of for instances came up in the last week and I thought I'd mention them and give props where deserved.

Last night some of the women from SRC went to The Melting Pot. I'm sure it was an adventure in Fascination and Fondue. If you've never been, it is quite an experience. I thought that was so cool, that they decided to do that so they got together and made it happen. There were ten that went, and the best part...they weren't all SRCers. In fact, the dinner outing directly influenced women who don't attend church anywhere. Awesome.

On Sunday we played Football. No big deal. But Kevin had a vision for it, and made it happen. The best part of the day was when I asked where one person's husband was. I wish he'd come to play. Someone else chimed in just when I did, "Yeah he doesn't even have to church, we'd just love to play with him." See, we believe the church is better at being the church when we're not at church so places like football fields, fondue pots, and Texas Hold 'Em tables are more important places for people to meet Jesus than in the Cade building.

Thanks for the grass roots effort to make ministry happen.

Matt asked me to explain the difference between the above examples and a "Women's Ministry", "Men's Ministry", etc. I told him that the women getting together wasn't and SRC thing. It was the people of SRC seeing the need, meeting the need. And that's all the farther it went. Football is seeing the need, meeting the need. It becomes SRC's Football Ministry, when we can offer a value-added opportunity for the community as a whole, i.e. a football league for the greater Annapolis area. I hope that is a helpful way to understand our view of ministry development.

--Ben