Work and Witness

Well Good Morning, For those of you who do not know me, my name is Brendan Shea and I am but I am the new Work and Witness Coordinator for our district, but I am also the pastor at Buchanan Church of the Nazarene

And if you have ever been to Buchanan, MI its actually was voted the nicest place in America (friendliness wise), but something about our community, is it is an extreamly low income area.

And to give you an idea about our church it is on the smaller side, we average around 35-40 on a Sunday morning and it is a fairly low income church.

And so about a year ago which was actually prior to me stepping into the work and witness position on the district, God began to place on my heart that our church really needs to serve outside of our community.

And really there are a few reasons that came to my mind were:

First we were able to bless another ministry, (instead of being inward focus)

We actually had cross community come to our church just for one day a couple years ago and I can honestly say it was such a huge blessing for our church

They helped us paint, organize, and do so much more.

And it was neat to think we could potentially be a blessing to others, how they were to us.

but also when you serve outside of your community something happens where it opens your eyes that the Kingdom of God is bigger than just your backyard.

And this opens our eyes to ways God can move that maybe we never thought of

It might be us just saying “it is neat what God is doing in that context”

It might be us saying “Wow, thats something we could do in our context”

But finally it was important for me to serve in a way where our church did not receive the benefits.

And so for me I really felt God wanting us to go somewhere.

But to be honest, I had no idea what that looked like.

Like I said our church is low income , we are a smaller church, not only that but to my knowledge I was not sure if our church has ever organized a work and witness trip,

So I am looking at all these obstacles and I am thinking how in the world are we going to do this?

People don’t have money to go somewhere

Even if they did we have a limited pull of people

And finally to my knowledge it was not in our DNA

And I imagine there may be some of us who might feel like we are in this boat.

We know missions are important, but it just seems a little unrealistic for our church.

And I’ll be honest thats a tough place to be (I am right there with you)

But I want to share what we did, because instead of going on a two week trip to another country, we thought what would it look like to just take a small step.

And so we reached out to Shephard Community Center in Indianapolis,

and if you are unfirmilure with them they are an amazing Nazarene community orginazation and church that has done so much for their community that Indianapolis has given them A TON of awards for the impact they are making.

And so I reached out and I said would we be able to do a small trip (Thursday through Saturday)

And how much would a trip like that cost

And to my amazement she said that would be great, and the cost would be around $80 a person which included most of the food, lodging, project funds, and a few other things.

And I remember thinking “Wow we can do this!”

And so all of that to say to you I believe that your church can too!

And some of you might be in a place where you could do a two week trip to Nicaragua, and that is awesome (DO IT), but I also recognize that for some it might look more like a three day trip down the road, or even a day trip and that is awesome.

But my hope during this talk is for you to say what would this look like for us.

And maybe even begin to plan a trip.

And so as far as very practical steps:

Probably the biggest tool I have for you is this sheet you recieved when you came in.

And you will notice these are all in the US trips.

and to be honest the reason is I did a lot of research planning the 2023 trip for the district (which we alternate inside the US and outside and this year was an inside) so I found some really neat inside trips.

But if your church is interested in going on a trip outside a good person to contact would be Stephen Sickle (his contact information is on the paper).

And so if you look at the paper the trips are divided by ones that are a little further away and ones that could potentially be down the street from your church.

And so just to go over the sheet briefly

Because a pretty large part of the trip is picking the actual trip.

And you will notice this sheet has where the trip is, what the ministry does and what projects you could help with, and then the cost.

And so let me just skim over this sheet very quickly, because there are some really neat trips here: Go over trips

And so I know there is a lot here, but I would encourage you to find a couple that may stand out.

It could be because there is a need, it could be because there is something about that ministry where maybe you church is interested in replicating.

The sex trafficking trip is a great example. You might realize there is trafficking in your area and maybe God is placing on your heart this is something we need to be a part of stopping.

How cool would it be to bring a group from your church there to begin casting vision on what your church could do.

And really its the same for all the other trips

So once you pick a trip (which is probably the most time consuming part) one thing I discovered about all of these trips were that most of the places (not all of them, but most of them) are planned mostly by the ministry that you are visiting.

Which takes a ton of pressure off you.

But here are a few kind of random things:

Praying for the trip is HUGE!

And I am not just saying that to give you your token prayer talk but it is amazing when its not just up planning a trip, but God is behind it.

Its like if I had a car with no gas, I could try to push it and maybe I could get it down the street, but I can guarantee I would not make it back to Buchanan

But I believe in a similar way God is what fuels the ministry of the church and its the same on a work and witness trip.

We need God to fuel us

But secondly once the trip is decided on we need to figure out a budget between us and the orginazation on how much it is per person and potentially even begin fundraising for them depending on what the project is.

But you want to think how much it will cost to drive or fly

If you get a decent group and you are flying, I want to encourage you to get a travel agent. It saves you save headache and probably some money.

If you need any additional food for the trip

Figure out if ministry is providing money

potentially figure out if you want a fun day and how much it would cost

And this can even be something small for a short trip. On our trip to Indy we were just going to do a scavenger hunt around the city one night

And then once you begin to get info together you need to advertise to your church.

Because you can plan an awsome trip, but if no one knows about it, it will not matter a whole lot.

Try to get interest among people in your church and even different generations (if its appropriate)

Create an info packet

And get a sign up sheet going

I would encourage you to require some sort of deposit just so you understand who is seriusly interested.

But other than that I believe we have about 5-10 minutes left and so I would love to see if you have any questions for me personally about this process, potentially anything that I did not make clear or even questions about the trips I mentioned?

And while you are thinking I just wanted to advertise for the district trips.

We would love to have your churches be a part of these trips.