Calvary Bible Church, in Boulder CO, came up with a creative strategy to catapult their congregation into becoming an externally focused church. It was a series of projects called "Kingdom Assignments." They started these back in June of 2003, there were 5 projects:

1) They gave $100 to 100 people and directed them to use the money to raise more money - based on the parable of the talents. Their $10,000 was multiplied into $50,000, which they donated to local charities. The bigger message was for the members of the congregation to go out and serve others.

2) From Luke 12 - a man's life does not consist in an abundance of possessions. They challenged people to live radically and de-accumulate possessions, and give to the poor. Thus the project was for 200 people to sell $200 worth of their possessions and give it to the poor. $84,000 of possessions sold went to local community organizations. And the congregation was encouraged to live with less and be more kingdom minded.

3) "the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve." They challenged people to serve "90 minutes in the next 90 days" in the community. They brought in non-profit orgs from outside the Church, community organizations like Red Cross, SafeHouse, EFAA. They had like a ministry fair, where members would sign-up to serve with those organizations (instead of for parking ministry or whatever). This encouraged Christians to go out and serve outsiders and created positive relationships between the church and the orgs. And members who had served were encouraged to serve further. This got Christians out into the community, being salt and light.

4) They challenged people to invite one person to church for Easter, and they grew the Easter attendance by 30% (ok, everyone does this).

5) Finally, the big thing that they've continued to do every year: Sharefest. Starting in June 2004, on the weekend of Sharefest they gaveup the offering from Sunday to the local public schools, and 650 members served for a day and a half doing work projects and maintenance at the schools. They took a weekend and blessed them. This is based on Jeremiah 29:7 "seek the peace and welfare of the city to which I've carried you into exile."

The Sharefest program has grown such that this last June 32 churches worked together to to serve 35 agencies and schools.

Today, the church has grown significantly and is now well known for serving their community and has positive relationships with government and social organizations. They did all this by getting the members of the body of Christ to work together - they empowered them and facilitated opportunities for them to sacrifice themselves.

What have you done to increase your church's outward focus?