What’s in this Episode?

There comes a time in the life of a pastor when you may be at your wits’ end to know what to do to grow the church. And then the Lord drops such a God-Thing right out of nowhere to say to you, “I have you right where I want you.” That was the case for Iowa Pastor Johnny Helton. Community service to Sioux City, Iowa launched with countless pastors pulling together to become “The Church of Sioux City” ministering to people at their points of need. Pastor Johnny walks us through how any pastor in any community can reach out beyond the walls of their church and reach people who would never darken the door of their church. Community outreach at its best!

Sign up for the 4 Keys Masterclass: Leaders.Church/Keys

 

Read the Transcript:

Richard Hardy 0:06
Hey friends, it’s great to be with you on this church tip podcast. And today I have the privilege of hanging out with my buddy from the great city and state of Sioux City, Iowa. Johnny Helton, from Morningside assembly. Johnny, great to be with you today.

Johnny Helton 0:19
Hey, thanks. Great to be here today. Thank you for inviting me to be a part of your podcast.

Richard Hardy 0:23
Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, Johnny and I, we’ve known each other for now, what are we talking 14 or 15 years?

Johnny Helton 0:31
Well, I’ve been here 16 years. So that’s how long we’ve known each other then.

Richard Hardy 0:38
Well, God’s been good to Johnny up in Sioux City, Sioux City happens to be my hometown. And so I’m a like the poster boy who loves to cheer for Sioux City.

Richard Hardy 0:50
And

Johnny Helton 0:53
Especially East Side Right?

Richard Hardy 0:56
Yeah, I got my East Side black Raiders t shirt hanging in the in the in the closet over there. So I should have had that on today is what I should of done.

Richard Hardy 1:05
Anyway, we want to Johnny and I were talking last week about the subject of community involvement, and the importance of a church in what they do in touching people outside the walls of the church. And I know it’s a real passion of Johnny. So give us a little jumpstart into that Johnny, what what are you doing, maybe give a little bit of the background and set the stage for that is just talking about some of the options that are available for pastors to involve themselves in the community?

Johnny Helton 1:37
Sure, well, again, thanks for inviting me to be a part of your podcast today. As you said a moment ago, I’ve been here at Morningside 16 years, gone by really, really fast. But really, since the beginning of my ministry, when I started in the state of Georgia, my home state, the church that I worked at was in a small community, you know, 38,000 people that’s not small, but it is for some cities anyhow.

Johnny Helton 2:08
The pastor that I worked for, there were things that I learned a lot from him, I learned a lot of what to do. And I learned a lot of what not, not to do. But one of the things that really stuck out to me that he was that he did was he was always community minded.

Johnny Helton 2:23
And that really, that really is a run out of Bible college, getting started in ministry, that was something that really stuck with me. So I was involved in the community, their school system, doing things, you know, outreaches with other youth pastors in the church in the in the city. And then in 1991, I moved to Dallas, Texas.

Johnny Helton 2:44
So of course, I wanted to be involved in my community there, I actually moved to a town called Duncanville, Texas church called Crossroads of life. And so I’m thinking, Okay, how do I get involved in the community? I went to a Youth Alive conference up in Denton, Texas, it was hosted by the National Youth Ministry department. And I was listening to Jeff Swaim speak and, and he said something that kind of freed me up they gave me helped me to kind of relax and because the Youth Alive is always pushing Bible clubs, Bible clubs, and I’m thinking, I don’t know that I have time to start all these Bible clubs. And he said, Youth Alive is more than a Bible club.

Johnny Helton 3:20
And I thought, Well, okay, well, than that frees me up, and It gives me liberty. So anyhow, I started looking for ways to get involved in my community, and what my school superintendent, other people when door just, you know, start being fit. I wrote a letter and went met with every principal in the city and said, This is who I am, I went in with no demands, I said, can I be of assistance to you anyway, and then he said, Sure, just don’t cause many problems.

Johnny Helton 3:48
So I started faithfully going to campus every week, and having lunch with students or just hanging out, getting myself known the community, showing myself to be faithful. And then one door opened after another door opened and I was able to serve as a mentor in the school system. Working with troubled kids are working with as sorry, some were troubled most toward kids that wanted to go through like what they call positive peer leadership training. Was that opened up another door, which eventually led to me serving on a, an Education Foundation, where we were 22 other board of directors, which led me to, we raised money for innovative teaching grants.

Johnny Helton 4:30
But those things opened doors for me with our church, which then our church moved to where we were, we were helping 100 families every year at Christmas in our school system. And is because I just showed myself faithful than making demands. I just found a found a hole that needing a medic. And so on the 17 years that I was there in Duncanville The Lord gave me great, really, really great favor as a youth pastor in the community. In fact, if you were to call up my former pastor who’s the district superintendent in North Texas, he would tell you that I was actually more known in the community than he was.

Johnny Helton 5:06
i’ve heard him say that many times. So then we just moved that into when I came to Sioux City in 2008. I was looking for ways to get involved in the community. And so I thought, well, I’ll just pursue the avenues that I did. When I was at that previous two churches, well, those doors just did not open.

Johnny Helton 5:22
You know, and I thought, Well, I’m a lead pastor, but when those doors should open, but they just did not open. But I still had the strong conviction that a church should be more than just a building and a group of people that meet at a certain place every week on a certain street and in a town, that you should be involved outside the doors of your church.

Johnny Helton 5:43
So I kept knocking and kept knocking and trying to push and get doors open, and nothing would happen. But in 2012, so I’ve been here four years. I got a call from a friend of mine, Rick Ryan at convoy of Hope who said, Convoy is I think it was their 25th anniversary, they were wanting to do 25 outreaches this year, and 50 and 25, the next year, and he asked if I’d be willing to coordinate one in Sioux City, and of course, I kind of gave him the the spiritual answer will let me pray.

Johnny Helton 6:18
You know, we’ve all done that’s kind of our way of saying I really don’t want to but push him off for a while. And he called me back. And that was also a very pivotal time in my ministry here at Morningside because it was still within that five year window of where you’re still gaining credibility with your church and kind of, you know, getting them to start to follow you. So it was really a critical, critical moment.

Johnny Helton 6:42
Because I was seriously considering not staying. And I was praying about that outreach one day, and the Lord reminded me that, that I prayed that I always wanted to do one of those when I lived in the Dallas area. And the Lord said to me, Well, now’s the time.

Richard Hardy 6:59
Here you go. Yeah.

Johnny Helton 7:00
So I didn’t know, I did not know how to go about that I had no money. I didn’t have any influence at the time, because I had not had doors open for me in that community.

Johnny Helton 7:34
We came by my office, and I sat down with him. And he said, Tell me what this is. Tell me what this Convoy of Hope thing is. And so I told him, and he said, Where are you thinking about doing it? And I said, Well, I really don’t know yet. I’m still just trying to figure all this out. And he said, Well, it sounds like to me that you need that you need are the types of events center, which is our big event center downtown seats, about 1000 people. And I said, Whoa, I said that’s a that’s pretty that’s that’s really, you know, how much does that thing will cost? Don’t worry about it. Pick up the phone. He called he said, This is Mayor Bob Scott. Is the is the title Event Center available. So So dates, yes, reserve it for me.

Johnny Helton 8:15
So that got the ball rolling. So I said, I said, Well, Lord, what do I do now? And the Lord just impressed me invite a bunch of pasture to lunch, pay for their lunch, pitch the idea to them, I did that. I asked him, I said, Would you pitch the idea, I feel the questions I said, would you take would you take the next month and pray about this, come back next month. And I’ll provide lunch with you again, and I’ll have a Convoy rep here. And then we’ll do either thumbs up or thumbs down.

Johnny Helton 8:44
And so we did that and came back the next month, and all of them a few back out. But the majority of them said yes.

Johnny Helton 8:55
So that got the ball rolling a year of work and other doors open and air, other organizations in the community. And so a year later, we were able to pull off Sioux City’s first ever Convoy of Hope outreach, and we had 30 churches involved. We had over 1500 volunteers from various churches raised, you know, $57,000, paid for it all gave away two semi truckloads of food. So that was so that at least did two things.

Johnny Helton 9:30
One, it gave me great influence in the community, not as Morningside assembly, but as a pastor who has a desire to work with other churches as the umbrella of the church instead of one church. And, you know, it’s really easy for us to be an island and say, we’ll just do it ourselves. It takes no work to work together. Yeah, but when you work together, is greater for the Kingdom. Yeah. And so so that ministry that outreach gave me great favor in that community, which we’ve done three other since then. And then now we’ve kind of transition we’re not doing the big outreaches anymore. Well, we haven’t done in the last couple of years.

Johnny Helton 10:12
But what we started doing now,through COVID, other things like that, were known as a point of distribution, Conroy will send me truckloads of food. And what I do is I call my partner churches that partnered with us in those outreach to say, look, I’ve got this truckload of food coming in, how many of you want it? And we’ll take it and we equally divided up and then they go distribute it to either put it in their food pantries? Are they go distributed to people that they that they know?

Richard Hardy 10:40
Well, and I’m guessing that just gave you such credibility with the city that they knew they could trust you and count on you. To be helped to the people beyond the spiritual aspect of it. Yeah. No, I mean, am I right on that?

Johnny Helton 10:59
Oh, yeah. Yeah. No doubt. And that is, you know, foster other relationships within the community with other pastors and, and open doors. At first in the school system. We have a group of churches now that we, every fall, we provide brand new shoes, we all adopted a school. And we, we provide like the school that we do, we will provide in the fall, we’ll provide 700 brand new pairs of shoes and socks for the kids in the school. This year. We think we have five schools in Sioux City that we’re doing our goal is to cover off. We have 10, Title One schools, and our goal is to in one week to give shoes out to all those 10 Title One schools.

Johnny Helton 11:42
And we have about five or six churches that participate in that now. And we’re wanting to add more. But yes, it’s giving me great favor. And back to the original story was the big event center. You’ve been in Sioux City. You know, the one I’m talking about downtown. So the total cost for them letting the city letting us use that was $500.

Richard Hardy 12:01
Oh, my goodness. Yeah. Yeah, that event center. But just a little aside for you. Johnny was the last high school basketball game I played in that center. So it wasn’t near as nice and cool as it is now. But so you know that?

Johnny Helton 12:17
So you played in the long lines building them?

Richard Hardy 12:19
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yep. So yeah, go ahead, you go ahead and feel free to date me, Man Date me. So making.

Johnny Helton 12:28
But and so not only did that outreach, give me, you know, some great credibility in our community. But it also gave me great credibility with my church to show them that I had the ability to be able to lead something like that and work with people, you know, and it really also saved my ministry, because I was seriously contemplating leaving Morningside at that time, you’re gonna be there.

Richard Hardy 12:51
Yeah. So to the pastor who says, you know, this is great, but I’m all about winning people to Jesus. How do you respond to that person? If assuming it’s given in a in the right spirit? How do you respond to a person like that?

Johnny Helton 13:09
And it’s a very valid question, because we’re supposed to be about winning people to the Lord, I found out that it’s easier to win somebody to the Lord, when you’re helping to meet a, a tangible need in their life, such as, you know, saying, You need Jesus, but don’t give them but they’re hungry. Or you need Jesus, but they, they need a new pair of shoes, and they don’t their shoes that they’re wearing, or the holes are worn out, but I don’t really care. But sure, we should. That soul is the most important thing, we understand that that’s, that’s the eternal thing. But if I can back and figure out how to meet a tangible physical need in their life, that sure opens the door for me to be able to talk about the spiritual thing.

Richard Hardy 13:51
So I find it interesting those first four years, you were hitting roadblocks, you you really didn’t. You weren’t able to make the headway in schools or government, city, county and so on. But then that breakthrough came at a point and that that was that was really a God moment for you.

Johnny Helton 14:09
And it was, I mean, I was certainly felt like I wanted to just give up and, you know, did I make the wrong choice coming here? You know, you have all those thoughts that go through your mind. But I remember that verse that Galatians, six, nine, let us not grow weary in well doing for in due season, we shall reap the harvest if we think not. So, you know, it takes a while to earn credibility. It takes a while to for people to buy into your vision. You know, who are you? I mean, I’ve probably it’s a good thing that wasn’t able to do that in the first couple of years. I was here because I hadn’t had earn credibility in the community. And so it just, it takes time to do that. I think that you know, what’s the old saying or was you’re saying it takes five years for you can actually get a church moving in the direction that that you wanted to go that way Pete or the way society is today and people

Johnny Helton 14:59
Our church, I think sometimes it may take you a little bit longer than that. And you got to be willing to stay the course. And staying the course isn’t always the easiest thing to do.

Richard Hardy 15:10
You know, when I was in Des Moines, I served as the public school board member in Johnston, for nine years. So I had I sort of three, three year terms. And we had a couple of other people from our church that did the same thing. And, you know, the overwhelming majority of stuff we dealt with wasn’t a big spiritual nature or cultural, you know, we were doing school board business and engaging in building a growing school system. But it is so valuable. What what those relationships do and how, at a further point down the line. When people in those settings have personal need, because everybody does, they know where they can turn in Sioux City, they know they could turn to Johnny Helton, because they’ve learned to know Him and to trust him.

Johnny Helton 16:11
Certainly I’m not the only one in Sioux City that’s built that kind of credibility, there’s, you know, and there’s been some spin offs from those outreaches. And some other churches really, you know, bought into the idea of being more community minded, and they’ve started ministries in town, like one of the churches down the street from us, they had started a Hope Center where they, and they, they really launched out and spent a lot of money. And they provide, I don’t know how many families a week with, with groceries and other other things. And they’re, you know, they’re doing a great job at it. And

Johnny Helton 16:48
none of that was happening before these convoy outreaches. And then these churches got on board, and then they began to see the value. And so now some of them have done started, not just have a ministry that was there for a weekend, but now they have an ongoing week of ministry. And so that was my goal to not be just something about Morningside, that it’d be something community minded, that we do this under the umbrella of the church, and that we see the importance of being engaged in our community, not just on Sundays, but throughout the week.

Richard Hardy 17:20
Well, and when, when you talk about that, talk about the church, I’m gonna say the church big see. So rather than just seeing Morningside assembly, or central Baptists or any other churches, and they are there, and they have their own uniquenesses, but there really is a church of Sioux City where you guys had joined together, for the good of the church, in the material, good food, clothing, and so on, but also the spiritual good.

Johnny Helton 17:57
I was gonna say, I think one of the most powerful things that came out of all this was when we were planning it. And of course, our mayor is a is a believer. And so that helps also, but in one of our meetings, and so remember that in these meetings, or planning this event, this these events, this wasn’t just pastors, these were pastors, and then people that work in our community that work in community agencies, you know, like, that provide assistance to people. And one day in one of our meetings, the the mayor said, you know, I’ve been the mayor of this town for 25 years off, he’s been several terms. And he said, I’ve never heard, he said, I haven’t seen this kind of involvement and unity among the churches in this city and 25 years. Wow, that was a huge statement.

Richard Hardy 18:47
Yeah, really was.

Johnny Helton 18:49
And it wasn’t about certainly, I was the one that was the leading the charge. But it wasn’t about Morningside Assembly of God, it was 28 to 30 other churches that were involved in that. Yeah,

Richard Hardy 19:02
that’s so cool. Okay, you know, the listener, the viewer, has consumed this content to this point. And if they heard nothing else, out of what you said, What is one takeaway, you want the pastor who’s listening to, to have heard

Johnny Helton 19:26
There’s a key somewhere in some opening doors for you to be in to make an influence in your city. There may not be what I did, but there’s a key and if you if they will pray, the Lord will show them the key and then you gotta be cuz remember when we stepped out and they did these hours, I had no money. And so one of the first questions that was asked to me what’s your budget? I said, I don’t have a budget where are you gonna get your money? I don’t know where I’m gonna get the money. But I knew in my nowhere that God had told us to do it. And, and it was a lot of work. But if You want to reach your city and you want to have influence. You got to be willing to step out in faith and find the need in every city has a need, and work to meet it.

Richard Hardy 20:12
Yeah, that is so good

Johnny Helton 20:13
and involve other people with you. Absolutely. Johnny, man, I can’t thank you enough. This has been absolutely great. Podcast. I thank you for what you’re doing there in Sioux City. Thank you for your friendship. Thank you for your investment in the pastor’s in this podcast today. It very was very, very meaningful. So thank you very much.

Johnny Helton 20:32
Well, it’s my pleasure. And I think thank you for your the you were the key that helped get me to Sioux City. So oh, man, I appreciate that.

Richard Hardy 20:41
Well, yeah, I’ve always appreciated watching your ministry from from afar once you got there. But great days are ahead. great days ahead for you and for the pastors watching and listening to this podcast. Thanks for inviting me to be part of it. You bet friends, thanks very much for hanging out with us on this. Certainly it would help us if you would be willing to rate and review the podcast and certainly subscribe to it. We’re trying to put out regular content of pastors and leaders on topics that are germane to ministry, as well. If you’re looking to grow yourself and your ministry, Jonathan and I have a what’s called the Four secrets masterclass. And you can we’ll have that in the show notes. But you can click onto that by just going to leaders dot church slash secrets. And you can jump on it’s a 60 minute masterclass, that’s free to you that will help you navigate your own personal growth. Because as a pastor grows, Soul grows the church. And Johnny has proven that up there at Morningside and we’re proud of him for having done that. Thanks very much for hanging out with us on this podcast. Make it a great one today and be blessed.

Jonathan Hardy 21:53
Hey, Jonathan here real quick before you go. Everything in your ministry rises and falls on your leadership. So investing in your leadership is essential to staying healthy and growing the ministry. And that’s why I want to invite you to join us inside the leaders dot church membership. This online streaming service for pastors gives you access to more than 300 videos plus training material to level up your leadership and improve your ministry skills. If you’d like to do that. I want to invite you to go to leaders dot church slash booths. Again, that’s leaders dot church slash boost. Well, thanks again for joining us on the church tips podcast. We’ll look forward to seeing you next time.

---

Like this post? Sign up for our free blog updates to never miss a post. We’ll send you a FREE ebook to say “Thank You.”

YES! SIGN ME UP >>

---

Discover what pastors of growing churches do to see massive growth and how you can position your church for the greatest days ahead.

Click here to get immediate access to this free masterclass.

Subscribe & Follow:

• Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
• Follow on Spotify
• Subscribe to YouTube Channel
• Subscribe on Google Podcasts
• Like us on Facebook
• Follow us on Instagram
• Follow us on Twitter

Other Resources:

• Leaders.Church
• Leaders.Church Blog
• Church University
• Take the Free 5 Day Leadership Challenge for Pastors
• Get Free Access to the 4 Secrets Masterclass

Share This Article

---