IMPACTING THE COMMUNITY: POINT OF ENTRY

Messiah's Vision statement reads, "...impacting the community by growing families in Christ through the Word of God." In order to "impact the community" we need to identify a ‘point of impact' and a means of impacting at that point. An analogy might be impacting the environment by "going green." So how will you start? You choose a point of impact. Let's say you choose to recycle. Now you choose a means. You research what can be recycled, get a recycle container, find out if and when the city/county sends a truck to pick up recycled goods, and, finally, make sure your recycle container is at the curb that day.

Messiah has identified ‘families' as her point of impact. We want to strengthen families by being a Christ-centered family, not only to one-another, but also in our community. How will we do that? What will be out means? Our answer is to build a family life center that includes a gymnasium. Like in the analogy I gave above, we have done some research and found that our church is planted in an area filled with single family dwellings, and that a ‘felt-need' of those families is being together, playing together and growing together through sports activity. We also found that there are not enough sports facilities in our area to support this ‘need.'

Now it's possible that a sports ministry doesn't excite you very much. You may feel that Messiah doesn't need a sports ministry. Certainly we have gotten along without one and are still growing. But the point is that this ministry is not for Messiah, it is for our community. Our goal is to reach out and impact the community, and this is a way to do so. There are already a number of churches that are doing this and doing it successfully. What I mean by that is, they are offering sports opportunities at their facilities while at the same time offering Christian witness in word and deed.

Someone may argue that we should just build more classrooms, offices, storage and a larger fellowship hall. Instead of a two-story gym, build more classrooms. Well, we certainly need all of the above, and the Family Life Center that we are envisioning will have it, though not as many classrooms, etc. as could be had without the gym. But the point is: building more classrooms, offices etc will not impact the community. The un-churched or de-churched are not going to come into our classrooms simply because they exist. But once we impact them according to what they do need, then, by the grace of God working by the power of the Holy Spirit, they will fill our classrooms as well. Our Family Life Center that includes a gymnasium becomes the means for the point of entry that accomplishes the impacting of our community. The challenge for Messiah will be to make sure that the impacting of families results in "growing them in Christ through the Word of God."