by Richard Hardy 

Beginning to engage with our community can be tough – where on earth do we start as a church? We can be overwhelmed by the quantity of need.

There are three key things we need to do to begin. You might wish to use these keys to take your church on a journey of faith and courage!

Before we do anything, Look Up!

When we know we have to get ‘out there’ and do something, we have to start by praying. It’s the most important place to start. We can pray for discernment – and then it’s essential to follow on with a second step.

Next we need to Look Out!

The best way to do this is to actually get out into our communities and assess the need. Through talking to people, and getting a sense of the big issues people are concerned about, we can find out what areas our church needs to address to make the biggest impact in the lives of people around us. And a realistic assessment of local needs is vital if you apply for funding.

This is likely to provide you with a whole range of opportunities – but don’t stop here. Unless you go on to the next phase, you could make a false start.

Finally, we need to Look In…

It’s one thing to identify the need you feel called to meet; it’s another thing to work out how to achieve your aim as a church. It requires a realistic look at the resources and manpower available to you. We need to make an assessment about what we can accomplish with the people, money and buildings we have right now. It may be that those all those things do not fit into place right now – but that people rise to the challenge and the resources are found.

Following these three steps, we can make a start towards making a difference.

http://www.engagetoday.org.uk/envision/how-are-we-going-to-engage/look-up-look-out-look-in