To get involved in God’s mission does not necessarily require selling all of your possessions and moving across the globe. God wants you to be involved in His mission right where you are. But if you feel stuck, consider taking one small step today.

I wrote for Lincroft Bible Church’s Community Groups blog 3 Ways To Be Involved in God’s Mission. I wanted to take some time to expand on those three ways.

1. Team Up

I was trained in “personal evangelism” growing up. Basically, personal evangelism meant sharing your faith one-on-one with someone else. In college, my evangelism class consisted in some training on what to say, and then an assignment to “cold call” someone and share the gospel with them.

I think there are two deficiencies in this approach. One, you are only trained in how to share the gospel one particular way, whether through Evangelism Explosion, Way of the Master, or the Romans Road. But people often come to God in a variety of ways so you need to be able to get to the gospel by a variety of routes. Some people struggle with God’s existence. Others believe that a God exists, but grapple with the problem of evil. So on and so forth. You need to be able to engage with people on their level. Second, it is not truly personal! “Personal” evangelism implies some sort of personal relationship, not merely doing “hit and run” evangelism.

I think there’s a better way.

Accomplishing God’s mission happens through community. When Jesus gave the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20), He was not merely giving it to individual Christians; rather, He gave it to the disciples who were representative of the church. God’s church is sent out on mission.

That’s why LBC does Community Groups: to further God’s mission. On a practical level, no Christian is omnicompetent. So having a diverse “team” surrounding you makes furthering the mission much easier, because you are able to rely on others who different gifts than you do. You may be great at hosting parties and events in your home, but get tongue-tied about spiritual things. That’s ok. Someone in your Community Group may be especially gifted at sharing the gospel with unbelievers. All you need to do is make the introduction!

So get involved in Community Group. You can find more information about Groups here.

2. Link Up

I find in my own life that I often don’t do things because I don’t know where to start. At LBC, the pastors are committed to mobilizing the church for service and mission. We want to give you a start. If you are looking for opportunities, just keep your eyes and ears open. By serving with your Community Group, you will build deeper relationships with everyone in the group. You will also grow in faith because you are now “walking the walk,” performing good works like Jesus commanded.

3. Throw a Party

If “personal evangelism” is to be truly personal, then you need to get know people. The first step is to meet people. Throwing a party is just one way to meet your neighbors and co-workers. At first, it might seem like throwing a party is a big deal. I mean, don’t you need to clean the house, make food, and decorate? That takes time, and usually lots of it!

One question that has helped me when trying to reach out to others is this: I am trying to look good or do good? If I’m trying to look good, then yes, throwing a party will be a burden because I am trying to impress others. But if I am trying to do good—to get to know people—then I don’t need to work for human approval. I throw a party for the good of others, and therefore, it doesn’t really matter what the house looks like.

I hope that fleshes out of the points I made in my first post. God’s mission is huge, but He is asking us as a church to begin taking small steps. After a while, we’ll look back and see that thousands of small steps accomplish much.