every hour. Upstairs from the library are the
neighborhood services division for the city of
Aurora, so I was now in regular contact with city
officials and staff. My goal was to understand
each person’s heart for the city. God gave me
favor with the people I met, and after a year I
had an even better sense than most city leaders
of what the city needed. I realized God was
giving me and our church strategic insight into
what we should be doing. He was giving us a
citywide view.
“ The church is still
needed and valued by
communities. We just
need to start fighting
the right battles.”
Phase Three: Service
We began to put that knowledge to work
and spent the next year vetting and serving
existing organizations who needed help. We
subordinated ourselves to them and made
ourselves problem-solvers in the city. This
bought us a lot of street credibility with movers
and shakers in Aurora, though that wasn’t our
motivation. We adopted the largest and poorest
elementary school in the city, helping kids with
clothing, food, and other needs so the teachers
could focus on teaching. Two years later they
had the highest increase in test scores in the
42
entire school district.
Phase Four: Collaboration
Without trying to make it happen, Highpoint
now had a seat at the table among community
leaders. I had learned from conversations
and observation of city leaders that true
collaboration is when two parties bring equal
money, resources, manpower, and creativity to
the table to solve a problem. I became addicted
to collaboration because I saw how effective it
was.
Phase Five: Leadership
Our church now enjoys what I never envisioned
before our crisis: true leadership and influence
in our city. Looking back, I see that God had us
on a journey to become a trusted and valuable
partner in community compassion efforts. This
hit home when we refinanced our building
and I sent an e-mail to several community
leaders asking if they would write a letter of
recommendation to our lender on our behalf.
I expected a handful to reply but was blown
away at how many wrote letters telling the bank
how valuable we were to the community. The
lender said their executives told them to give
us the lowest rate possible because they had
never seen a church so valued by nonbelieving
leaders. These “successes” are not mementos
of pride. God knows I never want to return to the
arrogance that once isolated us from our city. I
mention it as evidence that, contrary to popular
belief, the church is still needed and valued by
communities. We just need to start fighting the
right battles.