A question I have been in the middle of discerning is how can we, as a local church, be generous without expectation of return, but also inviting others into relationship with God and our local church. There are many other questions that derive from that overarching question, such as how do we ensure we are a part of the neighborhood and not acting as “saviors,” especially when our local community is very diverse.
This question has been an ongoing since moving to Dallas just over three years ago. Before moving here, I had been at a church that was in an urban, tight-knit, working-class community. It was a small church that understood the community as more than just the people that met on Sunday mornings. Moving to Dallas, there are a lot of the same similarities in our location and size, and the senior pastor and myself are very much on the same page, but we are also surrounded by many mega churches that have a lot of influence on “church” culture and expectations. We also struggle with a culture in Dallas that is flashy and appearances matter. This causes differences in philosophy at times as I would describe myself more practical and relational, while others in our leadership sphere would be more appearance and attendance based.
There is certainly a balance of doing things well when we decide to move in a certain direction, but I also fear that we can at times, try to “keep up with the Joneses” and focus on “looking good” rather than building long lasting relationships.
However, there is also the tension that before I moved here, when the church did host events in the community, there was little to no effort of connection back to the church itself. For my part, I have found myself caught in the middle between doing things to bless the community for no other reason than to bless them (not a bad thing) and doing things that the mega churches do around us because that’s what a good evangelical style church looks like.
So as we move forward, I’m always asking the question “why are we doing this?” and “how can we build relationship?” Perhaps the better question for us as a church is are we always intentional in where we spend our time and resources?