HEAR TO HELP
How is our church known in our community? Whenever churches have taken the time to ask their community, they generally get feedback sounding like – irrelevant, out-dated, money-focussed, judgmental. Increasingly though, it seems they also get blank looks. That is, many people in their community aren’t even aware of the church in their community. Sometimes, we church-goers become so inward-focussed that we assume everyone (including those in our community) know who we are, what we do, how we fail, and at least where we are. But the sad reality is, they don’t. Bill Hybels recently had a reason to go down to the back of his Willow Creek Church campus (in Chicago). A neighbour to the church called him over and pointed at the church and asked, “Hey, what is this?” As I recall the story, Bill asked him if he was new to the area. “No, I’ve lived here for years.” Even 20,000 member churches (such as Willow Creek) can have difficulties connecting with their communities!