Yesterday one of the baby's in our congregation was proudly showing off his new skill set, he was learning to walk!  I love watching little ones learn to take their first steps of bipedal independence.  The look of determination in their eyes.  The look of wonderment and excitement as they take those first fleeting steps between seat rows, the shear joy in their little faces as they celebrate each advancing step.  We all watched, encouraged and celebrated with cheers, hand clapping, and smiles!   

Do you know how a child learns to walk?  By trying and failing.  Through embracing failure as a natural part of the baby step process, a baby gets up after every fall and tries and tries again until they succeed.  Baby's learning to walk start off failing far more often than they succeed.  But each step and faltering failure ultimately leads the child to grow and learn.  Soon the baby learns to walk, to run, to skip and jump.  Oh the joy that comes from those first little baby steps!

Stepping out in mission, we can learn a lot from baby's.  One of the most powerful principles I've discovered in becoming missional is the principle of baby steps.  I cannot emphasize the principle of baby steps enough.  A congregation that is just starting out in mission MUST start with baby steps.  Baby steps are High Grace and Low Risk.  A congregation that hasn't been active in outreach needs to start off small with simple outreach that is easy for people to do (high grace, low risk).  

Baby Step:  Get together with a few people in your congregation who you think are the best candidates to help start reaching out.  Have a dinner or BBQ at your home and sit down with 3 to 8 people to talk about simple easy way to reach out to the community.  What can you do that will be High in Grace and Low in Risk?  Could you offer free cold bottled water at a soccer game or local event?  Could your congregation host a Free Family Carnival for the community?  Could you find an elderly, disabled or single mom in your community that needs their yard cleaned up, free of charge?  These are all easy, Baby Steps out into the community that are High Grace and Low Risk.  

Get together with a few like minded people in your congregation and see what Baby Steps you can come up with to step out into the community.  Then see what the Holy Spirit can do through your simple Baby Steps outside your church building and into the community.  You will be AMAZED at what God will do! 







Leave a Reply.