BEING A "GOD" INFLUENCE - 2

To engage people in culture we must remember that holiness is separation from sin, not separation from sinners. - Ed Stetzer

In 2002 my congregation at Landisville began a series of "Thinking Forward Meetings." The Elders had invited the entire congregation to seek the mind of Christ for the future direction of the church. 71 persons attended 13 of these small group gatherings to share how they had seen God at work leading the church and what they believed we needed to deal with in order to be faithful to God.

In one meeting, 82 year old Bernie McFarland (a life long member of the church) announced, "If this church died tomorrow, no one would really notice. They think of us as the rich church on the hill (a reference to our magnificent stained glass windows), but we have no real impact on this community."

From that statement and similar confirming statements, my congregation set out on a journey to be a church that impacted its community for Christ in life-changing ways. Borrowing a model from Robert Lewis in The Church of Irresistible Influence we set out to build bridges to the community in prayerful hope that our interaction and relationships as the church with the community out in the community would draw people into the Body of Christ.

We also worked on understanding and embodying our core values so that when people connected with the Church they'd meet the real Jesus living in and through us. That meant we had to mature and grow as disciples who each day reflected the character of Christ--trusting the Spirit of God to make us influencers for God in the world without fear that the world would influence us.