I have been thinking lately about what could be done to actually change our community and the vastness of the role the Church has to play in that change. When I say the Church I am not talking about a congregation, but about the whole body of Christ in an area.
Now these are very rough ideas, but these are a few things that I have thought about.
1 – A network of churches (congregations) working with a common purpose. Many churches have ministry ideas but not necessarily the resources or all the personnel to complete the mission. Why not join forces in common goals? (We are working on this – see http://www.facebook.com/midgachristian )
2 – We have all these buildings. Why not work on ways to invite the community in to use them. Let’s build relationships with those in the community. If you have a gym or playground start working on ways to let the public use your space rather than ways to protect the area. Make rooms available for groups to meet bin from scouts to neighborhood watch – look for civic organizations that need space. Give classes for people in the area – if you have entrepreneurs in your church see if they can give a class in starting a business, use rooms for free exercise classes or Zumba or whatever else you can think of. Do it for free – these aren’t to raise money but to build relationships with people.
3 – There are neighborhoods to take back and every one of these neighborhoods have churches in and surrounding them.
* Pray against the dark spiritual forces which are heavy in some areas.
* Pray for the Holy Spirit’s influence to come on these same areas.
* Pray for the people in these areas.
* Exemplify the love of God to these people.
* We can’t just pray and wait for spiritual change – we need to be out in these areas. Ideas – Street clean-ups – Every congregation needs to adopt some streets near them and take responsibility for them – clean up the debris, clear overgrown empty lots…..get volunteers to spend one weekend a month doing this and while you are doing it take time to meet your neighbors – some of them are you and some of them are people desperately looking for God whether they know it or not.
* Assemble a group to raise money to buy a rundown property in the area – fix it up – sell it to someone – do it again.
* Help people in your target neighborhood that need help with their homes, the sick and the elderly that may be having trouble maintaining the home before it becomes a major problem.
4 – The churches need to become ministry centers – places where people come to in time of need. maybe one church in an area needs to have a food pantry, another a clothes closet, another something else while all the congregations in that area gather the food and the clothes and whatever other resources are necessary to stock for those needs.
5 – I envision a Christian ministry center eventually – a place where people can come to when they need to get back on their feet. A place for families that have fallen on hard times to be healed and restored. A place to train or retrain those that need it.
Is there anyone else in Macon that wants to become involved in being the hands and feet of Christ to our area……………if so, please contact me.
Yep! Preach on!