Developing Bethel's Outreach Program

Outreach is always a priority of the church.  Some would say THE priority of the church.  As a staff and Mission Council we have been working to design and have launched a rigorous Outreach Program.  

Outreach is ultimately about forming relationships.  As we engage with our community in ministry, we are sharing God’s promise of a world where the hungry have food, broken relationships are repaired, all have housing and health care and where justice reigns.  So as we reach out in ministry to our community, we are welcoming our neighbors into God’s new world.  

For us, this new world has an earthly epicenter, namely our church, Bethel.  We gather here in worship and community to praise God and carry out the Gospel.  As Christians we hope that everyone has the opportunity to share in a church community.   Therefore, we are compelled to reach out and share God’s salvific Word with our neighbors.  

Ultimately, our goals for Bethel’s Outreach Program are:

1. invite neighbors for faith formation 
2. initiate and develop relationships in larger community
3. make Bethel a more inviting space in which to welcome others
4. make Bethel more recognizable in neighborhood

Currently, our worlds have been turned upside down because of COVID-19.  This includes our life at Bethel as we have known it.   During this time of crisis, we need to focus our Outreach on ministry to all those in need, members and neighbors alike.  Now is the time for creativity and innovation.  

In this spirit, the Mission Council has chosen to focus the inception of our Outreach Program on the topic of loneliness.   We have developed, what we are calling, the Loneliness Project.  Loneliness is an epidemic in the United States.  It affects the elderly and children alike.   “Nearly half of all Americans say they are lonely.” According to studies, loneliness impacts health in terms of heart attacks, strokes, cancer, depression and is said to shorten a person’s life by 15 years.  Currently, one in six Boomers live alone while Gen Z and Millennials scored the highest for loneliness.  Loneliness—feelings of emptiness, being cut off and craving for connection has shown to elicit a corresponding spiritual depression.  

With the onset of COVID-19, the loneliness epidemic has compounded exponentially.  

At Bethel we are concerned with how loneliness impacts our congregation and surrounding community.  The Loneliness Project, seeks to address loneliness directly as an imaginative and innovative ministry that fulfills a great need.   We seek to rekindle the days when churches were considered hub of neighborhood activity.   We wish to be recognized, by neighbors and members alike, as a sanctuary for loneliness.  We wish to make our welcome vibrant and create a space and opportunities for relationship building. 

During this first phase of the Loneliness Project, we will focus on two vulnerable segments of our membership, namely seniors and young families.  Seniors are proving to be highly at risk for loneliness due to immobility, restrictions due to health concerns, separation from friends and family and being at the highest risk for grave illness because of the virus.  Young families stand out as vulnerable as they care and provide for small children.  They are particularly vulnerable to common resultants of COVID-19 such as job loss, working from home with small children, remote schooling and children who require social relationships as part of healthy development.

Now more than ever, we need your support.  We have a plan, an imaginative, innovative and practical plan to do Outreach.  Help grow our ministry to those most vulnerable for loneliness during this pandemic.  Help us to reach out to our members and community alike so that they can experience God’s restoring grace that comes from being a part of the Church.  Help us to form, foster and sustain relationships so that we might grow in Christ’s love together.