BRIDGEBUILDING CHURCHES have a kingdom-sized vision and a mission field that ultimately moves beyond Judea and Samaria to the uttermost parts of the earth.  Dean Hay pastors the United Church of God in Ursina, Pennsylvania and are definitely a BRIDGEBUILDING CHURCH.  Here is their latest mission field.

     The amphibious assault ship, the USS Essex

For more on Bridgebuilders Ministries go the bridges to the Bridge.

THE KEY TO WORKING WITH A SCHOOL--A SERVANT'S HEART AND A SERVANT'S ATTITUDE

 BY STEVE DUNN

Part 2 of a Series

Schools have become the center of most communities, often supplanting the position a key church once else. This acutally makes them now a prime mission field for churches who seek to build bridges of truth and grace,.  The key here is to surrender any idea of controlling the school or asking the school to serve your mission.  The key is to seek to influence a school by showing it how the church can help the school accomplish its mission.

The primary goal of most schools is to provide a quality education by giving kids academic knowledge and lifeskills necessary to function as useful members of the society. What that involves varies from community to community and is often dependent upon three things:(1) the graduation requirements of state departments of higher education (2) the constraints of budgets available from the taxation system (3) the socio-economic needs of the community they serve.

Many school superintendants or principals will tell you that there are many competing groups trying to control that agenda.  As such, school administrators have an instinctive reaction against anyone who wants to use the schools for their purposes--whether it by the federal government, taxpayer groups, political parties, or special interests (in which category they often place churches).

It is not without accident that Jesus taught us that true leadership comes through humility and self-sacrifice.  These are the two key ingredients in servanthood.

You demonstrate a servant's heart when you pay attention to the "little people" (i.e., the support staff) and offer to help them.  One church gained inroads because their youth staff visiting school lunch rooms helped the kitchen bus the tables.

You demonstrate a servant's heart when you help the school do the community research it must have to make its reports and justify its proposals for funding.

You demonstrate a servant's heart when you ask that principal, "What's one job around here that you have trouble getting people to do?" and then you go do it.

You demonstrate a servant's heart whenyou give your Christmas offering to support the "family emergency fund" that most office of student services must have to meet lower income needs.

You demonstrate a servant's heart when you don't feel the need to brag about what you do for the school on your websites.  You let the school do the bragging about you.

(C) 2013 by Stephen Dunn

 

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LEARNING TO WORK WITH A SCHOOL

 

 

 BY STEVE DUNN

Part 1 of a Series

 

 

There was a time when the church was the center of the community.  That position has long ago been supplanted by the community's schools.  As our society has become more secularized, as youth sports have grown, and through a variety of other factors, schools have come to definer of community rhythms and the schedules of countless households--even those without children.
 

Many churches have come to recognize that those same schools are a vital part of the mission field outside their front door.  Although such courtesies as "dark nights" in the school schedule to protect the church's priorities have been swallowed up the burgeoning demands of the schools, churches are wise to shun the attitude that sees the school as an adversary.  We need to see schools as a vital venue for building redemptive relationships with the larger community beyond the church's walls.

The church should begin by prayerfully examining the question: "How can we be the best church for community's schools?"  But do not assume you know the answer? Schools ultimately need the life transforming presence of Jesus Christ, but first a church must respond to the school's felt needs

Here are some simple steps to getting started.

Prayerfully ask God to identify the school He wants your church to build a redemptive relationship with.

Learn all you can about the school so that you have a sense of their needs and assess if you have the resources to help them.

Have the pastor make an appointment with the principal.  Be sure to schedule it at the principal's convenience.  Simply explain that your church wants to provide some volunteer assistance for his or her school. Ask him, "What is something that we could help you with to relieve some of the work load of himself or his staff, or to help the school save some money, or to achieve something the school needs but currently lacks the time, manpower and resources to accomplish?"

Do NOT ask him to do something for you.  There will come a time when it will be appropriate to ask the school's support or participation, but that tends to come in at later point when you have earned that right.

Offer to fund items for this.   

  

If he has something, and most will--tell him you will see what you can do to meet his request--and do so quickly (not hastily).  Report back to him promptly.

  

Next post: The Key to Working with the School: A Servant's Heart and Attitude

 

(C) 2013 by Stephen L Dunn 

 

Reprint permission: You have permission to reprint for your ministry or repost as long as you do not alter the post and give credit to its author. An email note from you would be appreciated by the author and a link back to this blog is always appreciated.

 

WHY AN OUTWARD FOCUS FOR THE CHURCH?

 BY STEVE DUNN

"The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost." - Jesus

 
"The experience that a transformation of all human life is given in the fact that "Jesus is there only for others." His "being there for others" is the experience of transcendence. It is only this "being there for others," maintained till death, that is the ground of his omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. Faith is participation in this being of Jesus (incarnation, cross, resurrection)." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"Go into all the world and preach the Gospel ..." Jesus
'
"The church is the church only when it exists for others...The church must share in the secular problems of ordinary human life, not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men of every calling, what it means to live in Christ, to exist for others." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

One of the tragedies of the Church in our present age goes directly to its faithfulness and fruitfulness.  That is the tragedy of the Church's inward-focus.  Too many churches organize their life around taking care of one another--but the result is that they give only lip service to the needs of "others."

Too many churches possess a fortress mentality, intentionally creating barriers that keep the world from getting to close for their comfort.  That desire for comfort blunts the call to sacrificial servanthood that is at the heart of Christ's Great Commission.

As a result these churches lose their transcendence as there is no attempt to embody the love of Christ in the midst of a world where God is too often out of sight an out of mind.  There is no costly discipleship by which the church matures and validates the supernatural power of God.  There is no resurrection life because there has never been a death to the old "religious" ways that made them feel like good people, instead of being God's people.

The Church's true impact, authentic identity, and God-honoring purpose can only be found when it becomes a "church for others.":

(C) 2013 by Stephen L Dunn

WHAT IS YOUR RESPONSIBITY TO THE GREATER COMMUNITY?

Posted on High Calling> featuring attorney Dwaine Massey on what he feels he should give back to the community in which he lives and which provides him a place to carry out his calling.