Missional Metrics IV

Number of ways, my street, neighborhood, or community are more livable because of my influence.

Let me begin by asking a fundamental question.  Shouldn't the world around us be blessed by their proximity to us?  In other words, shouldn't my street, my neighborhood, my community be a better place because I am there?  This is about taking our vocation to be the "light of the world" and the "salt of the earth" seriously.  Last week, I sat down with a couple who have expressed interest in donating a very valuable piece of land to us.  We talked about their hopes and dreams and why they wanted to see a church building be built there.  Essentially, they believe that the communities of Sun Prairie, Windsor, and DeForest will be blessed by a new church.  I happen to agree.  But what is church?  As we explored the meaning of "church", they began to understand and catch hold of a vision of a network of people living and moving and infiltrating every corner of our community, permeating those places with the fragrance of God's grace and unconditional love.  This couple began to see the power of such a witness to truly transform this area for Jesus Christ. 

This is about engagement.  True engagement with those around us and it is not that hard.  It simply involves a conversation across the fence with our neighbor.  It involves opening our homes with radical hospitality to those whom God brings our way.  (Here I think of my friend Drew, who always seems to have a house full of college kids, his own kids, his grandkids, etc!)  What if we intentionally opened our home once a week to someone new, someone we didn't know all that well, a neighbor, a co-worker, someone we met at the park?  Surely practicing such radical hospitality could be a step towards making our community a more livable, more blessed place.  And that's just the starting point...

Back to the couple I met with...as we talked I found out their son is the new principal in the most disadvantaged elementary school in our area.  It is the most racially and ethnically diverse.  A significant portion of the students are on free or reduced lunch.  There are a lot of family issues these children are dealing with.  They talked about how proud they were of their son for taking this challenge on and how they prayed and hoped he would be a blessing to those families.  I immediately asked for his contact information and told them I would love for our community to come alongside him to help and support him.  They couldn't believe it.  "Aren't you going to be busy building a church?" they asked.  "Exactly", I replied.  "The church finds her life as she engages in the same missional/incarnational practices Jesus did." 

You see how easy it is?  So let me press the question again...is your street, your neighborhood, your community more livable, more blessed, more at peace because of your presence or the presence of your church?