12 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:1-3
God told Abraham that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him and the great nation that would come from him. That nation is the family of God, the church. Being the church is sometimes as simple as being a blessing to the community in which the church resides. The church should be a good neighbor, with everyone living nearby sensing that life is better because of “that” church, even the atheist down the street.
I work with churches all the time that struggle with how to connect with the people of the community. I think part of the problem is that we begin with the question, “How do we get people to come to our church?” A better place to begin is to ask the question, “How can we as a church bless this community?”
In blessing the community, that is, meeting community needs and participating positively in the life of the community, the relevance of a church becomes more apparent and the reputation of the church becomes more positive and widespread. This quite naturally earns the church the opportunity to speak into the life of the community, to be a friend to the community, to represent Jesus Christ to the community.
I suggest a shift from recruiting church members to blessing the community with no strings attached, no ulterior motives. Give this a try and see if the impact of the church increases. How could your church be a blessing? How soon can you start?
