Earlier this year I stopped at the entrance to the church driveway only to be greeted by one of the neighbors. It had been four years since I first met her and the relationship had grown significantly over that time. She reminded me that she had no desire to attend our church, but that she is glad to be one of our neighbors. She went on to open up about her job as a saleswoman at the local “liquor store” as she called it.

She said, “You know, people ask me where I live and I tell them, next to that church on Union Deposit.” She went on to share the typical response she hears, “You mean that all white church that is really stuck in their ways?” I was shocked that anyone would think of our church that way, but what she said next was one of the most affirming things I have heard in 17 years of pastoral ministry.

She smiled and finished her story, “I tell them that’s not true any more. I tell them a lot has changed and I tell them about all the good things that you guys do in the community. I tell people that you are real.” It was an eye-opening roller-coaster conversation.

On one hand, I was deeply concerned that some people in the community had such a negative perspective, but on the other hand, it was nice to know that we were in a process of making a significant impact in the community.

I am excited that God has allowed our church to be considered a blessing. I also have no doubt that several community initiatives have played a major role in the numerical and spiritual growth we have been blessed to experience. Rather than recount all the various community investments God has placed in front of us, I simply wanted to take a few moments to talk about two of them, and then discuss the principles that made them successful so that you can find your path in your community.

1. WE BEGAN PROVIDING SERVICES FOR AN UNDERFUNDED, UNDERSTAFFED SCHOOL. 

We’re not the first to think of this; but for us, this has been huge. We discovered that a local elementary school had 800+ students with just three moms on the PTA. Over 70% of the students in that school come from non-traditional family structures. If you think about it, a grandmother may be willing to help raise a grandchild, but she isn’t as likely to be helping out with a school fundraiser.

When we learned this, we simply contacted the PTA and Administration and said something like, “Hey we’re the church down the road. We think it’s important for a church to have a positive influence in the community. We would like to help in ways that are helpful. We promise to leave the church stuff at church and just do our best to be a good neighbor.”

The response was pretty incredible and we discovered the need was even greater. Few teachers, if any, stuck around for more than a year at this school, and many of the Admin staff were in a similar category, viewing the school as a quick step on a career path. They wanted consistent help and support.

I will never forget meeting with the PTA for the first time. All three of them came down to our cafe and discussed the needs for an upcoming spring event. They hesitantly asked if we could perhaps volunteer 10 of our people to help and perhaps consider putting together one game for the students. Our staff looked at each other and smiled knowing what God had already put on our hearts to offer. We responded by asking, “Would it be ok to provide 40 volunteers, 10 games, a petting zoo and other fun things for the students?” All three moms instantly broken down in tears at the thought of their students finally having an event worth attending.

As our congregation began to get excited, more and more opportunities came up. We have hosted three trunk-or-treats, provided volunteer classroom reading aids, donated paper for their art classes, handed out Thanksgiving meals, donated coats for a coat drive, planned pretzel days for teachers (a staff favorite) and lots of other things that were just clear steps from God leading us to love our neighbors well.

I checked in with the Principal after our most recent event to ask if there was anything we could do better to serve them in the future. He responded, “We enjoyed working along side you all last week. It went awesome! Every time that you and the parish help us is a huge success. As always, we appreciate your support.”

Step back and appreciate context of God at work here. This is an Evangelical church in America in 2023 being praised by a public school. Obviously the praise isn’t the reason we do what we do, but it does make a point…people in need are, and always have been, a potential place for our churches to have life-giving impact.

2. WE CONNECTED WITH OUR TOWNSHIP’S CRIME VICTIMS’ ADVOCATE 

This is new, but we are super excited about it. We learned that the local police have a person on staff known as the Crime Victims’ Advocate. Her job is essentially to help any victim of a crime in our community. The focus of her job typically falls onto vulnerable women and children who unfortunately are frequently the victims of criminal activity. We asked for a chance to sit down with her and discuss if there was any way that we as a local church could do anything to assist. She obliged. The conversation was life changing.

“How many cases do I have currently? I have 300 active cases in our area…but that’s only the reported issues.”

It was sobering. Our community is well populated but our township isn’t large. She currently was working with 300 cases and over 500 individuals who were victims of crime within 8 miles of our church within the past year. She explained that while there are government resources available, they are often not specific to some of the central needs of these individuals.

She explained that beyond physical needs, most of these individuals are hurting from domestic violence and are embarrassed, betrayed and have been distanced by friends and relatives who simply say, “You should have known better.”

It was clear to our team that this was another place God was ordering our steps. We discussed plans for immediate and long-term needs we could meet, and how we could meet them in a relational way. As it stands there is a support group beginning to get together in our building hosted by the Crime Victims’ Advocate. We have raised money to help two specific situations and have given Christmas Eve offerings to these families. We don’t know what the outcome will be, but we trust that God is doing something bigger than we realize and that this is only just the beginning.

5 KEY PRINCIPLES FOR SUCCESSFUL COMMUNITY INROADS

1. You won’t discover what you aren’t trying to find. You have to be looking for this stuff.

Our staff team talks about being patient but always vigilant. We aren’t jumping at every opportunity that comes our way, but we are looking at every opportunity and trying to discover if it is the way God has called our unique church to engage this community. We train our eyes to look for unique opportunities that our church gets to make the most of…patiently waiting, but always vigilant.

2. You have to know what you can do well and do only that before you do anything else. 

We said “no” to a lot of other things and it bothered a lot of people. Relay races (ok that was a bad idea), guest worship performances, prison ministries, and revivals were a few of the things people expected us to do. If we did half of the things people asked we wouldn’t have any real effort to do any of the things God had for us.

What is the primary inroad to the community that God has for you? Do that well before you do anything else. We are volunteer stewards, and we have to be very skeptical of the people, energy and passion each initiative borrows from others.

3. Keep telling the story to your people.

People attach themselves to stories more than anything else. They don’t want to know about the tasks they can do, but they do get excited about the mission they can accomplish. If you help your people see themselves playing a vital role in that story, it won’t be long before they want to be an even bigger part of it.

4. Building relationships is more valuable than building reputations.

I fought with not mentioning this until now. I hate the idea that anyone may think we are just out there chasing our reputation. We’re chasing lost souls – a trusted reputation is just a part of that. If you don’t have the reputation, people will feel that you have ulterior motives. We had a DJ volunteer at one our school events and while I love him to death, I cringed when he said “Shout out to Susquehanna Valley Church for putting this all together and making this possible.” He meant well, but it’s not our style and its definitely not our goal. I went over to him and politely asked that it be about the school and the students. I explained that the families got invitations to various church events and that the Principal was clear to indicate we were a part of it. That along with some personal invitations was enough.

5.  When you discover an inroad, aim for cumulative support.

It’s about building and maintaining progress. It’s about a sustained relationship. It’s about being there when most other groups would have packed up and went home. We do pretzel days when teachers are most exhausted. Small helps at the right times are big deals.

As a staff team, when we took a step back to look at these inroads to our community, we were all left with an overwhelming impression. There is simply no way we would have been able to interact with these individuals simply by being the “stuck in its ways” church on Union Deposit. We wouldn’t have laughed with them, had the chance to shake their hands, given them coats or simply made them smile. To do that we had to follow God’s lead and step out into the community. When we did, we made real life connections with our neighbors. We have even recently seen several individuals from these inroads begin attending our church where they are hearing our message and experiencing our love. Several have trusted Christ and are now vital parts of what God is doing here. So yes, we left the church stuff at church, but the community found something worth hearing more about and decided to follow Jesus with us.