Over the past eight years the congregation known as the Franklin Reformed Church in Nutley, New Jersey has been privileged to be on a journey from being a 'Christendom' congregation toward "missional" church. This has required a fundamental shift in our ecclesiological understanding to: "... believe the mission of the church exists to participate in God's redemptive work in the world. This work takes as its focus not our wants and desires, but the way of life, the suffering and the triumph, of Jesus. The gospel is not just a message to be proclaimed; it is a form of participation in what God is doing in and for the world."2

This moving toward "missional living" has caused us to change our perspective on most of what the congregation says that it is and does. In this light it becomes impossible to answer the question of "what programs and strategies" we might use in our "evangelism\outreach" ministry. To paraphrase Dr. Darrell Guder, Academic Dean, Princeton Theological Seminary, "Witness is the comprehensive biblical term that defines Christian calling in such a way that it relates to everything one is and does. This means that it is not reducible to specific actions or programs of a congregation"...3

If we as a congregation live toward being a community that is called by God, set apart, Biblically formed, conversant in a narrative theology and sent out again into the world, then we are always engaged, in a cyclical fashion, in both evangelism and outreach. This becomes the function not only of each individual member of the community, but of the community itself.

We have also learned that with criteria such as these, numbers - of those converted or brought into "membership" with the congregation - are inadequate indicators of the "success" of our ministry. Instead we have begun to measure "success" in terms of being faithful to our call and effective in our response to God, whatever form that takes.

Therefore we are engaging in outreach and evangelism when: We confirm that call by God of an individual or the community: our membership numbers have remained stable for the last three years and we have high levels of participation of church members in ministry both inside and outside of the congregation. We worship, thereby "proclaiming the mighty deeds of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light."4: we have reshaped worship that is blended and reformed in style and have a strong preaching elders program. We discern together God's work in the world and engage with God in it: a Habitat for Humanity project and the confirmation class hosting an ice cream social at a local boarding house for the mentally ill. We tell our story in relation to THE story of the gospel: with an increase of participation in Bible study, about 35% of the adults in the congregation, members are more confident to talk about their faith in places outside the church community. We are sent out - missioned - into the world in our home towns, in our workplaces, in our schools, in every place that we find ourselves: doorjam, the house band, has performed across the three states in both church and secular venues, the congregation has earned a reputation of being Biblically based with a strong prayer ministry, and the congregation supports broad community involvement of the pastor.

Evangelism and outreach in the missional church can be neither programmed nor strategized, but becomes an organic part of the life that we live in faithfulness to God.

1 The IMPACT process for vision discernment and transformation was written up in Treasure in Clay Jars: Patterns in Missional Faithfulness, and is available through the Center Resources Store.

2 Brownson, James et. al. Editor Storm Front: The Good News of God William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI., 2003, page 2

3 Dr. Darrell Guder, Princeton Theological Seminary, lecture January 27, 2005.

4 I Peter 2. 9b