Years ago I would come out to visit Sam and Karen with a certain girl I was dating. During my visits, I would often think in my skeptical way, “Who builds a church out in the country surrounded by corn fields, separated from the town by a freeway?” Well in the ‘Field of Dreams’ way of thinking it has been, “build it and they will come”—for the city of Lincoln now surrounds us. But have they come? We can say that the building of the Northern Lighthouse on the north side of the freeway has proven to be a very wise and God-led opportunity. Today there are no cornfields around the NL and the corn rows are being replaced by roads and houses. During the next few years the landscape surrounding the NL will drastically continue to change. Besides roads and housing developments our surroundings will include a 4-lane street. |  |
Still, the question remains: As we have built it, have they come?
As a church we have done the traditional (at least traditional in the past 20 years) means of reaching out to the people in the community to our north, where over three hundred homes already are filled by families. We have organized people to hang door hangers with no visible success. So should we continue to hang door hangers and attempt costly bulk mailings (it has been stated that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect different results)? So again I ask: “We have built it but have they come?”
One thing stands out to me as I reflect on existing patterns: People come to the church because of relationships, loving relationships with people who are already in the church. This is not a shocking revelation to anyone with knowledge of the Bible. Jesus did not build church buildings with tall steeples and expect people to come; He loved people and interacted with them in their own towns and homes.
How do we follow in Jesus’ footsteps, showing our neighbors God’s love and building authentic relationships? And how do we become a church that has a kingdom influence?
We believe that one of the keys is something called, “Community Development.” Community Development is at its core “loving your neighbor as yourself.” It is a switch from seeking to minister to our neighbors to doing ministry with our neighbors. It looks at each person as being created in the image of God and having active gifts and resources to advance God’s kingdom. The Steering Team of the Northern Lighthouse believes that sharing the good news of Jesus by asking, “How do we work with our neighbors to make their community a little more like heaven?” is more effective than asking a question that is focused on the church, such as “How do we build our church?”
I believe the evidence is clear that the church can no longer just “build it and they will come.”
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