I just read this article about how a church partnered with a university, a Boys and Girls club, and other local pastors to reach out to their community.

It is very different than what I remembered. This church went from me and my denominational network to church and community partnership to outreach with community.

I thought about this and realized that when the church left the community for denominational exclusiveness, the appearance of outreach to community and care and concern for community disappeared also. It appeared that this church decided to reverse the trend and go back to partnering with the community (without compromising the Gospel) instead of adhering to the thinking that community is compromise.

We speak of ‘authentic Biblical community’ but when we talk about local/global community, we then think that that is compromise to the ‘liberal-evil-secular news media and government’. We want community only when the ‘rules’ work in our favor, only when we can preach theopolitics, only when we can rig elections, steering committees, planning boards, etc. When we can’t get this, then we believe that we can not fulfill a Great Commission and go into war rally mode.

Finally, we had to drop our hidden agendas. We weren’t doing good in our community only to get people to join our church. True, our worship attendance is up about 20 percent. New members have joined, and we have first-time visitors almost every Sunday. Not all are a result of our partnerships, but some come because they have seen what we are doing.

More important, we are becoming known as a church that cares about the community. We don’t label these partnerships as evangelism or even pre-evangelism. We are just building bridges, working with others, and making a difference in our community.

Well said

Related Posts

1. I Save Souls, Therefore You Need to Join Me In Saving Souls
2. The Turning Around, Part Eighteen
3. Paying People To Attend Church
4. Shiny Happy People Laughing
5. Worship Bandstand