Are you reaching the lost?

So I'm always playing the bad guy, the devil's advocate or whatever you want to call it. My question about all churches is, "Are you reaching the lost? Are you doing outreach? Are you practicing 'Evangelism' outside the 4 walls of the church?" For some churches the answer is, "Absolutely!" for others, there is pause...or even a "kind of" answer. 

By my standards...which I feel line up with those of Christ, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation," I feel like it is unacceptable for us to not be reaching out to those who don't know Christ!

Currently our church is in the midst of a restructuring of our Outreach and Evangelism Ministries. Previously we had a full blown church/ministry that's sole purpose was community outreach and evangelism. They, through the Lord's blessing and excellent leadership, were so successful that they are now their own sovereign church. The outreaches we currently have revolve around our Bus ministry for our Children's and Youth Ministries on Wednesday nights, and our Men's Basketball Ministry on Monday nights. Outside of that, we aren't reaching out to bring the lost in....so what to do? In a few minutes I'm about to be in a meeting with a few leaders that are going to be helping our church launch a new Outreach and Evangelism focused ministry. What are we going to do? I'm not entirely sure, but I promise you, we are going to be connecting with individuals who don't know Christ, connecting with church visitors and newer believers to engage them in Discipleship, and most importantly telling each of these people about the love of Christ as well as showing them first hand what it is.

What's one of the road blocks? The Word of God tells us that the Harvest is plenteous but the laborers are few, what does that mean? It means that there is LOTS of work to be done, ministry to do, and people to be reached, but the people willing to do that kind of ministry, and ministry in general are few and far between. On top of that is the fact that all of our outreach minded volunteers are already plugged in at our former outreach church. So what now? We develop new leaders, ministers, volunteers, etc. God has called us to reach the lost...all believers, not just some of us, or the Pastors, or the Rich people, or those with an "amazing" testimony, but all of us. You are called, serve your church by being a part of the ministry that is reaching out to the lost, its the Heart Beat of God.

I'll give you an update as our ministry expands and lives are changed, I'm believing on it.

-Ryan