Don't Just Do Something, Sit There!

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

The last two blog posts (including this blog title) have been taken from The Faith of Leap by Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch. I highly recommend it!

In our calling to be a missional church it is helpful to have practical steps we can implement. Especially as we strive to be a people of God involved in non-Christians' lives outside the four walls of our building where we meet each week.

So, how do we do it? And what does this kind of missional life look like? Juliet Kilpin from Urban Expression in the UK has a few suggestions:

1. Listen to the rhythms of your context. Sit in local places. Hang out in local coffee shops. Talk to local people. Join community groups.
2. Be employed in the neighborhood. Be free of being so driven by results. Stop measuring your success by how many people attend, and start measuring it by what God is doing in your context.
3. Engage in snowball research. That is, meet the community gatekeepers, the movers and the shakers. Listen to them. Hear of their dreams for your neighborhood. Who knows, they may be the persons of peace referred to in Luke 10.
4. Get rid of your church building!! Well, Juliet was being cheeky here, but she pointed out that many churches don't engage in their neighborhood because they are too locked into their building. If you got rid of it, you'd have no choice but to go and engage with the community.
5. Say yes to every invitation you receive. Follow Jesus's advice to his disciples in Luke 10 and accept all offers of hospitality. Say yes to every party, every meal, every committee you get invited to attend.

It's all about "cultivating a church with deep roots" in our community. How about you, do you have any ideas of how we can minister in our community where God has placed us?