Live God’s Church and Be Community
Consider a few people doing some training on community engagement. Such training is offered by the Barnwood Trust. The training isn’t specifically Christian as they aren’t a Christian charity, but the tools that they use are very compatible with a faith based approach. In fact, the principle of ‘Asset Based Community Development’ (ABCD) which is behind a lot of their work has much in common with the spiritual principle of ‘finding out what God is doing and joining in.’ In both cases, we are exploring where we see there is already energy, where God is already at work within a community.
Meet to explore which issues are being brought up by a variety of different people. Talk and pray in order to discern where God might be leading.
Discuss potential partnership with individuals or community organisations. Be careful not to gossip about individuals but to keep the discussion to broader community concerns. Positive comments about individuals can be included, such as ‘X who runs the pub is really keen to do something about Y’. It is good to make a ground rule that personal comments about individuals need to remain positive.
Talk to potential partners as possibilities begin to emerge.