Start with the Right DNA: N-Network of people on Mission

There are 168 hours in a week. If the average class meets once a week for one hour at a time, then that leaves 167 hours left. Obviously, we need to sleep, eat, work, play with our family, go to school, and do all the normal stuff of life, but there still remains an important question: What are we doing during those “other hours” with other members of our Sunday School or Small Group that further expands the Kingdom of God? Are the people of our class ON MISSION ministering to and with one another?

Over time, the people in a new group will eventually build trust and demonstrate transparency toward one another in many ways. It is a natural progression for a healthy group. A great way to progress beyond just a trust level of relationship is to serve together on some form of mission project. When people work together toward one goal, and the goal is not for their own benefit, something happens in that relationship. I have seen and experienced this phenomenon in people serving on Mission trips and Disaster Relief activations.

There is something about the common goal that builds a bridge between people that can’t be reproduced any other way.

So how can a group make networking people on mission a part of their DNA? Here are some suggestions that might get your group thinking in that direction:

• Schedule one Saturday a month to do a class service project for a neglected population in your church or community
• As a class, adopt at month to staff the Nursery Care extended session and provide the volunteers needed for that month
• Partner with a different generational class in your church to go serve together in some mission activity in the community
• Adopt a local middle or high school sports team and pledge to, as a class, serve the team pre-game meals or wash the dirty uniforms
• As a class, go back-to-school shopping on behalf of a neglected population in your community and distribute these items to the families who need them
• Volunteer to read to (or listen to) children in a local primary or elementary school once a week. In our community, schools are always looking for more volunteers.

What will your group do to be on mission together?

__________________________

Jason McNair is on mission with the Adult II (creative name, I know) Sunday School class at First Baptist Church in West Valley City, when he is not serving the churches and missions of the Utah Idaho Southern Baptist Convention as a Strengthening Churches Consultant