Community Involvement
by Owen Taylor,
Community Involvement Team Leader
Churchnet is committed to serving churches by
assisting them in engaging the future with hope as
it enacts its new Vision 2020 strategic plan. One of
the new strategic initiatives focuses on helping
congregations as they seek to expand their
community involvement. The Community
Involvement Team has the goal of helping
congregations understand and engage the issues
confronting people in their communities. I will serve as the team leaders. I am also the pastor of Sanctuary Fellowship Church in St. Louis. The team will work at fulfilling the six priories that define the purpose of its mission:
• Help churches share hope by engaging the social and justice issues in their communities.
• Offer models, resources, and training for contextualized community involvement and advocacy.
• Provide resources and hands-on projects to help congregations engage current realities.
• Help congregations develop strategies for building sustainable relationships in their communities.
• Assist congregations as they address problems to creatively transform their communities
• Help congregations prepare for and deal with the change and potential conflict that may come from engaging changing communities
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"We want to help congregations
understand and engage the issues confronting people in their communities."