WHAT WOULD YOU SAY, HOW WOULD YOU DO IT? My business here at Lifestyle Media Group is to tell stories and influence people - for Christ, particularly in the realm of lifestyle ministries such as sports, recreation, fitness, gardening, and so on. I was reading the website of First Baptist Church of (I won’t say) just this morning. They are providing space for and participating in a really beautiful ministry doing one of these lifestyle ministries. They have partners and in the church website there are links to those partners websites that then link to the social media of those partners which then led me to read a post about how one of these partners essentially uses some of the revenue, they earn from the partnership to support the cause of women to “be able to control their reproductive rights, their body” - an agenda that may not be what the First Baptist Church of____ fully envisioned. Mind you, this is just what I found on the Internet and I think it’s always wise to never rely on just what you find on the Internet alone. But I want to pose the question to you, REACHgathering participants: beyond the assumption that you would vet partners, what would you say to a church that wants to start an outreach ministry such as sports, recreation or fitness that helps them critically consider how God‘s purpose is accomplished through it? How do you assure there is deeper intentionality and discipleship? After all, it’s a ball game or a group exercise workout or a day of disc golf - it’s not a Sunday service. But if the senior pastor’s job description specifically called for being present in at least an occasional game or work out, how would you leverage that presence to be more than token pontification? And more specifically beyond the senior pastor, how do we commit to the deeper ministry beyond just doing nice sports, recreation, or fitness activity? If you were called into an annual performance evaluation by Jesus what would the measurable’s be and how well would you measure up? I ask these questions not to be judgmental at all. Rather, in a world and culture that wants to soft pedal Jesus, or write him off completely, how does God want us to instruct the next generation of SRF leaders so they have absolute clarity when they ask the question, “ how do you do it?” Please, send me your insights so that I can share with my readers. Brad Bloom, brad@lifestylemediagroup.com

Posted by Brad Bloom at 2025-03-27 11:41:33 UTC