Elevating the Church’s Role in the Community
Churches must value their role in the community.
I’ve spent much time reviewing my notes from
meetings with civic leaders and have identified
five strategic and sacred roles only the church
can play in today’s communities:
• Elevate the human spirit. The church does
this by appealing to the best, instead of the
worst, that people can accomplish together.
• Mobilize resources. The church can quickly
mobilize people and resources to overcome
difficult problems, respond to emergencies,
and meet complex needs.
• Promote justice. The church can serve as
a moral compass to help our communities
navigate through the dark side of politics,
materialism, power, selfishness, and sin.
• Meet unique needs. The church can fill gaps
that government, education, and political
organizations aren’t structured to fill.
• Facilitate spiritual growth. The church can
resource people’s spiritual needs by creating an
environment for spiritual growth and discovery.
If you feel the tug, as we did, to become
influential in your city, let me share this brief
advice:
• Influence requires grace-centered collab-
oration. Your influence will never be greater
than the relationships you have with those
from different philosophical, political, and
theological perspectives.
• Learn the unique culture and needs of
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