Towards a Lost Sheep Ministry

The reward of seeking lost sheep.

When I was working in Tyler, Texas during my nonprofit days, I saw a survey we did for a HUD grant of the local "demographic."  In it, they included an item that identified people by religious affiliation. I was shocked to see that of the people who said they were Adventist, there were half again the number of professed Adventists as there were Adventists who were actually attending the 3 Tyler SDA churches. 

 

Some likely listed themselves as SDAs because that was the last church they'd had anything to do with. I suspect many were maintaining their connection to the church through the 3ABN TV UHF ground station the local church maintained in the community. Others were occasional attendees but had never put their names on the books. It's a sad statistic that of the ninety and nine of our flock there were 50 more missing and wandering around kind of lost.

Sadly, ministry to the lost of our own flock is too often neglected these days in favor of evangelistic meetings that bring in new members. I wonder if some of the reluctance to seek after our lost members has anything to do with the fact that some of them were troublesome sorts of members in the first place and our church officials are not anxious to reignite old fires. Still, our displaced and isolated members are a fertile field for harvest.

Still that one lost sheep is by definition, a troublesome sheep, wandering off from the flock. With many of these lost sheep having caused the shepherds all sorts of trouble., the thought may be, "Better to let sleeping sheep lie." 

 

Just as new technology has improved search and rescue techniques, so new tech has given us new tools for spiritual search and rescue. If Jesus' parable about the lost sheep is any indication of the relative importance of spiritual search and rescue, then it seems like it ought to be a ministry that is a fixture or our church programs. It seems there should be more of a focus on this neglected ministry. 

Now with the Internet and the ability to inexpensively livestream our services we have a priceless opportunity to reach out to disconnected members, shut-ins and hereditary Adventists in the community who have slipped away.With texting, mobile phones in everyone's pocket and the means to use social media to keep in communication with one another, there are abundant avenues to woo back our lost lambs.

Being a shut-in myself has opened my eyes to the possibility of ministries to recover lost members and engage our shut-ins. Ron Halvorsen Sr did a thing at the Keene, Texas church when he was there, where he bought and had donated a small fleet of school buses. We fanned out through the countryside picking up kids for Wednesday night youth meetings and picking up elderly and disabled folk for prayer meeting and church. Through word of mouth and by direct mail we let people know that we would come for them to bring them to church. We put young people with guitars on the buses and sang our way through the hills and dales of Johnson County picking up kids and adults on Sabbath on on Wednesday night. The church was packed to overflowing. We went from an average 42 attendance at prayer meeting to over 1000. We went from one service to two.We trained the Academy and College kids to organize, plan and run the youth meetings. We taught classes in story-telling to young volunteers. Musicians just showed up anxious to help and to be a part of some wonderful music. 

 

The church grew dramatically, much to the chagrin of some of the board members. There are always some that hate the idea of all those new and energetic members. I say new members, because in seeking our lost members, we wound up finding dozens and dozens of new ones who were swept up in our nets. Adventist kids often brought along friends and neighbors on the buses. The Wednesday Youth meetings were like an all year Vacation Bible School.

I think every SDA church needs a lost sheep ministry. The Graham church here in Washington did a thing where the deacons and board members and volunteers went round to take communion to our shut-ins. It was a lovely idea and a blessing to those of us who are isolated from our church family due to health, disability or transportation issues.

Sometimes we think witnessing is going around passing out "literature" and throwing evangelistic meetings. But it's not. In all of scripture I have found only three things we have been told to do in order to find our way to heaven.  Study, pray and then share what you've learned from the first two. In sharing what you've learned, you'll find that what you've learned is heavy on treating others the way you want to be treated, caring for the sick, the disabled, the widows, orphans and elderly. Witness means getting out your hammer and building your elderly friend a ramp so he can get his wheelchair out of the house, installing handrails in her shower, mowing someone's grass or repairing a sink.

The really beautiful thing is that doing all this outreach to our lost sheep and to our neighbors as well, we help save souls, including, surprisingly, our own. There's nothing so good for depression and unhappiness as turning your hand to helping another, especially if you do it with no thought of reward or payment.

In these days when we see prophecy being fulfilled right and left, it will not be having the right politics that will bring us through these times of trouble. It will be how we build communities of faith, how we lift each other up, and how we pull together as sons and daughters of God. 

Think about it. What can you do to find a lost sheep. It may be simply listening to someone's troublesd. It could be running an errand for someone. It might be as simple as inviting someone to go with you on an adventure. If each day you ask God to bring you to the witness stand that you may tell of your own experience with Him, God will guide you to His lost sheep that you might show them that He loves them through your own life. 

Yours in Christ,

Tom King

© 2021