Missional Focus Week – Day 6
Alright, hopefully the emails this week have seeded your hearts and minds with thoughts of ways we could band together to reach out in the UIC Area. Now it’s your turn.
Share your ideas, stimulated by this week’s emails and contextualized specifically for the UIC Area by posting a comment below. Post as many as you want! There are no dumb posts. If you like someone else’s post, comment on it. After a week we will see which ones had the most support and start getting people together around those ideas to implement them.
The final (and most critical) component to all this is going to be prayer support. Whenever you or a group of people are going out on a missional venture, let the Intercessory Prayer Team (IPT) know by sending a quick email to prayer at Immanuel dash baptist dot net so they can be backing you up with prayer. If anything is going to happen, it is going to have to be a movement of the Holy Spirit.
Also, before the next Joint Outreach (10/5) John Rood will be doing some evangelism training at 10:00 AM at The Meeting Place.
Thanks for following along this week. Now let’s see what the Spirit does!
Immanuel Blog 
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September 27, 2013 at 8:12 AM
Cyndi
I think once a month each small group should choose an event in the community to attend together in order to interact and build relationships with non-believers. If there are no events happening, choose a coffee shop to have small group in!
September 28, 2013 at 10:47 AM
immanuelblog
Are there ways that we could add a ‘missional component’ to the Koinonia Happenings (https://immanuelblog.wordpress.com/2013/09/23/koinonia-happenings/) coming up?
September 28, 2013 at 10:57 AM
Robert
I think these are great events to invite coworkers to. I definitely will be for guy’s night.
September 28, 2013 at 10:55 AM
Robert
How about on Valentines Day we buy a couple hundred single stem roses, and walk the neighborhood on Loomis and give them out to mothers? We could attach a small card with the words “You are loved” on one side and on the other it would be our church name and address and a Bible verse that tells of God’s love for them.
October 1, 2013 at 11:46 AM
Robert
I also thought we could have a church sponsored date night. The church would provide child care for three hours one set night a month, allowing parents much needed time together. I didn’t intend for this to have a missional focus, but I think it could in a couple ways:
1) Provide parents and families the recharge needed to be more open, outward, and hospitable.
2) Time could be used with intentionality. Eat at local restaurants, throw darts at your local bar (Skylark!), and invite coworkers/non-Christian friends for double dates – IBC will watch their kids too!
October 8, 2013 at 2:22 PM
Woo & Rosario
Rosario asked me to leave her idea in a comment. She is a child psychatrist and had the idea to have some sort of counseling group meet. She could lead it twice a month, and I may assist in leading as well.
October 16, 2013 at 9:53 AM
Vivian
Fitness can be tough. It’s hard to find the time, and some activities like yoga or spin classes can also be really expensive. It’s also undeniable that a lot of gyms/workout groups place an unhealthy emphasis on body image and reinforce the world’s idea of what “ideal fitness” means. Maybe a couple or few times a month, we can organize a group run or bike (or I could even try to lead a yoga class at the Meeting Place). Or if people in the church know how to salsa, ballroom dance, swing dance, etc., we could all get together and learn – and invite people from the community to join us for free.
October 16, 2013 at 9:55 AM
Vivian
Or even just once a month to start!
October 16, 2013 at 5:55 PM
andy
i can offer free hair cuts. maybe at the saturday outreach?
November 1, 2013 at 2:10 PM
Woo
Can you come to the outreach a few times? Maybe if you got a feel for the the outreach (more spefically the people we serve) we’d get ideas on the logistics of how to incorporate free hair cuts!
November 1, 2013 at 2:19 PM
Woo
A few months ago, I started praying that God would put one or two non-believing friends. Sure, I could walk up to a complete stranger or strike up a conversation with anyone I work with. And, how am I supposed to know who/when/where/how? And gospel conversations tend to bring up sensitive issues, which might be better handled in a genuine friendship. And, IT FEEL SO AWKWARD. So, I prayed that God would “always” give me one or two non-believing friends, who are generally open and willing to listen, and actually want to be me around. As of today, I have exactly two non-believing friends I am growing closer to and occaionally talk about spirituality and Jesus.
So, I think an easy idea is to pray God would put a few non-believers in your life!
December 19, 2013 at 5:34 PM
immanuelblog
Greetings Church Family!
At our membership meeting a couple weeks ago, we discussed the idea of being missional by initiating and participating in fitness/exercise activities in our community. We hope that this will allow us to meet our neighbors in the UIC Area and share the gospel with them, while also creating opportunities to be good stewards of the bodies God gave us in a missional and grace-filled way. To continue the momentum for this “Missional Fitness” idea, we’d love to get your thoughts and involvement in the following ways:
– PRAYER: Please pray that our ideas and our plans would be God-centered, and that He would be glorified through all of it.
– IDEAS: We have heard a lot of great feedback already from people with ideas for potential activities, including: pick-up basketball games or volleyball at Park District open gym nights, biking trips, running/training for races, ‘mommy and me’ kid-friendly gym visits, Latin/swing dancing outings, and checking meetup.com for groups of locals who get together to participate in activities like these. While many of these ideas will be great for when the weather warms up, we could use your help brainstorming indoor activities. Ultimately we welcome any and all thoughts or ideas you might have, especially if you have specific ideas from conversations you’ve had with friends and coworkers, or just from your own interests!
– COME OUT! Your presence, participation and ownership in these activities is key! And be sure to invite friends and neighbors!
One immediate way you could get involved is to join me in training for the Chicago Rock ‘n Roll Half Marathon in July 2014. I just signed up, and if you’re interested in running as well (or just coming on some of the training runs), it’d be awesome to have an IBC presence! A lot of my coworkers do this every year, and it’s a great way to build bonds. My goal is to be intentional in seeking out running groups in the UIC Area, so let me know if that sounds like a challenge you’d like to be a part of. 🙂 Here’s a link for more info: http://runrocknroll.competitor.com/chicago
Thanks!
– Vivian