Looking Ahead Part Five (Serving)

Ever since the Compassion Journey, I have been thinking about how our church really reaches out to the community. One of our Core Values is Cultivating Community Connection, and we’ve said that is measured by answering the question, “If Severn River Church stopped existing, what would our community miss?” This year we’ve made some steps in that direction, but not to the level that we need to go. I think that after this year SPAN would say they missed our partnership to help the less fortunate. We had a larger contribution than they had ever had from the local Giant, and that was a result of our church working together to connect with the needs of the community. In fact, we gave so much to SPAN that they called sister group NCEON to come and take stuff for their pantry. But that experience taught me something; we can do more.

Do you remember the feeling that day at Giant? I think that it was almost electric as we served the community. When you look at Jesus’ instructions to the people he sent out, in his name, he gave these instructions: 1. Eat with them, 2. Meet their needs, 3. Tell them about the Kingdom. I think that my collective church experience has switched those things into opposite order.

I think when he said “eat with them” he was referring to having a relationship with them. Here’s a thought, maybe we could get to know them and their needs before we start trying to meet them. I think for most of this year I was trying to do service by braille; groping my way along trying to find a way to meet a need. Looking ahead, we will be getting to know our community and implementing compassion by design. Let’s not waste our time meeting needs that don’t exist. Let’s get to know the needs, then meet them. I think Jesus knew that when you do it in that order then you have a platform to share the Kingdom.

Those that attend the church should begin to see more and more opportunities to help us in this priority. We’ll begin by forming a task force (we might call it “Team Strike Force” because that sounds tough[1]) to strategically connect with people who can most inform us about the needs of our community. For instance, we’ll be talking with School Administrators, Local Business People, Local Government, and other non-profits that are designed for that purpose. We’ll be gathering data from 1,500 contacts in our community over the first 9 months of 2008, by the time we enter the fall we should be compiling the information we gathered, and strategically serving our community.

If we want to do Jesus’ thing, but not do it his way, we need to rethink our motives and goals. But if we want to be a church that is making disciples, baptizing them, and teaching them to obey God’s word, then this is the vision that lies ahead of us.

Something you’ll find out about me is that I’m not very original when it comes to vision. I pretty much try to find what Jesus is doing and get on board. Thanks for being part of it. I can’t wait to see this fleshed out in us. When I think about the impact we could have in our community I start shivering and shaking, because I know this is a God thing. You can be part of it. We will be part of it.

--Ben

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[1] All rights to the name Team Strike Force are owned and operated by A. Gilt.