Everyone His Witness "20/20" Vision
At our last District convention, we encouraged all our congregations to make use of “Everyone His Witness”, an educational resource for personal witness developed by our Synod. Little did we know how valuable it would be for the changes of 2020! Today’s limitations right now actually free us up to refocus on relationships and equipping our members to engage their personal relationships from home in the neighborhood, on the phone and internet.
Published by CPH (www.cph.org/everyonehiswitness), this resource includes a two-part process, training individuals in a six lesson basic “core module” followed up by online self-study “context modules” (http://www.everyonehiswitness.org) for witnessing in specific settings where understandings of faith backgrounds, value systems and life experiences will be helpful.
20/20 Outreach
Is 2020 a year for outreach opportunities? The short answer is, “Yes!” His Church has always been witnesses both corporately and as individuals. For decades the trend has favored the Church’s corporate witness through groups, events, activities, and programs (e.g. Servant Events, VBS, LWML, Youth and Senior Ministries). Outreach may look a lot different in 2020 than it has in decades, the Ascension promise of Jesus remains unchanged in 2020: “You will be my witnesses!”
COVID-19 has Shifted the Focus of Outreach
Public worship gatherings are resuming, while often other activities remain highly limited. The sweet spot for outreach is shifting from “church programs” to “individual witness.” The need for this shift was happening even before the pandemic. We were praying for younger generations missing from our churches. These generations tell us they are not seeking programs and attractive activities, but rather, they are crying out for authentic personal relationships. God opened the door!
A District “20/20” Vision
The Missouri District Commission on Mission and Ministry is providing the core module training online for everyone. Our vision is to support healthy congregations, schools, and church workers with online learning experiences across the Missouri District. Groups and individuals can take these classes via the online Zoom meeting platform in just two 90 minutes sessions. The first of several offerings of these training opportunities will be offered in January. We will keep adding classes and dates as need. Register online at https://cutt.ly/MD-EveryoneHisWitness.
