Below is some outstanding advice for all Christians, but especially for churchplanters on living missionally.
How to Enter Your Community Missionally
You never get a second chance to make a first impression. First impressions are critical to any new venture. Some experts say that within three seconds people have made judgements about you – looking at surface clues to size you up. Others say that within seven to seventeen seconds of interacting with a new acquaintance their opinion is formed. If we as leaders are going to enter a community missionally we need to consider our attitudes, actions and appearance. Years ago I picked up these five ways for entering a community from Dr. John Fuder. Each one, taken seriously, will properly position any pastor or church planter to effectively enter a new community. When entering a community we should:
- Intercessor – One must humbly petition heaven for their community. Asking God to reveal himself to the community and to reveal to the planter how He is at work already in that community.
- Learner – One must enter as a student of their community and the cultural make up of that community. Asking good questions to community leaders and long time residents is a good place to start.
- Servant – One must enter with the mindset of a servant. Church planters should not just enter a community to serve individuals but to discover ways to serve the community as a whole. Some communities see churches as takers in a community and not givers. Church planters have an opportunity to change that mentality.
- Friend or Ally – One must go into a community for the purpose of building long lasting relationships and fostering healthy partnerships. Informal and formal alliances will be crucial for you to gain creditability among those you are trying to reach.
- Story Teller – People love stories and telling God’s story is the reason we are entering the community. Church planters and pastors need to learn how to tell three stories well: 1) Their personal faith story. 2) The story of their call to the community. 3) God’s story of redemption.
Taken from Gary Rohrmayer, churchplanting guru. Gary is the BGC churchplanting director, author of First and Next Steps curriculum and contributor to 1000s of churchplanting efforts. Another outstanding resource for filling articles of incorporation to how to build a launch team in Coachnet.net, of which Gary is a part.