A church whose top value used to be comfort and convenience will turn into one that thrives on commitment and mission achievement, and a church mired in lethargy will transform into one that pulsates with passion.
Change a Community
Every church is called in Scripture to effect its community. That is the "salt and light" concept referred to in Matthew 5. It is the feed the hungry, clothe the naked, provide resources for the poor, love thy neighbour, relieve oppression, change inequitable structures, and be a conscience to the community concept.
But that doesn't happen automatically. Once a church is energised in all the right ways by the power of the gospel and the unquenched Spirit working in the congregation's life, then that energy has to be focused. So many churches consider "success" the aggregating of ever-increasing numbers of people. But that is only one measurement, and, in some cases, not even a good measurement of effectiveness. A much better measurement of effectiveness is how many people in the church are envisioned and equipped to bring Christ to their arena of influence. How many bring the power of the gospel into where they work, live, and play golf, and into the neediest areas of the community?
If you are going to change the world, the world changes one block at a time, one neighbourhood at a time, one community at a time. Until you are effecting your community you are never going to change the world.
Change a Region, Change a Nation
What I have observed is that if there is one lead church or one pace-setting church in a community it tends to inspire the behaviour of other churches. Then, the collective membership of those on-fire churches really do effect a community enough for it to begin to effect its region, its county, and then its state, country, and world.
I was in a community recently where there is quantifiable evidence that the crime rate has gone down in an area where a whole bunch of churches have gathered together. I also think of the efforts of Jim Tomberlin, one of our pastors here at Willow. When he used to lead a church in Colorado Springs, he initiated a network of like-minded Colorado Springs churches that decided they were going to do their best to eradicate homelessness from the metropolitan Colorado Springs area, and they made substantial progress on that front.
Then there's Matthew Barnett, pastor of The Dream Center in downtown Los Angeles. Through the collected efforts of many church leaders in that area, they established neighbourhood ministries in a concentrated urban area that have dramatically affected homelessness, unemployment, and hunger. That has effected their neighbourhoods and continues to spread through their region.
