The social
transformation work seen during recent trip to the Philippines could be an
example for American churches to engage their communities. Thom Rainer began a
blog series about trends in 2015 for churches.
Rainer (2015) suggested one of the trends would be "Congregations
growing in favor in their respective communities." In other words,
churches will become more active as partners in serving their communities. This
suggests some ideas for churches in cities like Manila: instead of operating
behind church doors, get out into the world. In light of concerns about decline
even among evangelical churches, a more activist approach can be a
demonstration of authentic Christianity.
Churches can do
something similar. Our small church in Lacey, Washington, Life Pointe Church, committed to
serving their community, reaching out to the military and to subdivisions in
the area. Life Pointe served the subdivisions by providing logistics support to
homeowner association programs supporting events like National Night Out. Life
Pointe Church became especially valued by the high school whose facilities they
rented, providing backpacks full of supplies for homeless students, preparing
breakfast for teachers during in-service days, holding clean-up days of the
school grounds, and creating a scholarship program. The lease, originally
restricted to two years by district policy was waived for the church because of
their value-adding ministry.
Church leaders and
members, however, need training for this. Churches are uniquely positioned to
take the lead in communities undertaking joint projects involving different
kinds of entities. These might be called megacommunities
where businesses, nonprofits, and government entities united to solve a problem.
To be effective, church leaders and members need to embrace development in
practical areas like project management, interpersonal communications, and
finance, to name a few. Congregations are also uniquely equipped because they
are the ones with a broad range of disciplines represented. The other entities
have specific competencies, but congregations have specialties ranging from
handymen to attorneys and from mechanics to doctors.
