One of the quotes that I often use is attributed to Albert Einstein, and it states “insanity is doing the same thing expecting different results.” Over the last year, I have often felt the North American Church has been stuck in trying to do the same thing and get different results.
Is your church doing the same thing expecting different results?
What if we recognize that our mission does not change, but how we do the mission might need to change? Could we start the process of figuring out how to do the mission in a fresh way? I certainly hope so!
Currently, I am leading a team at my church to explore new ways to serve our community. We are starting on a process that we do not know what result we will get. Yet, we recognize we need to try something different and trust God to direct us.
I have decided to share the process here. Perhaps, it will help someone else or perhaps, I can assist your church in a similar process.
The first step in exploring new opportunities of community outreach is to recognize the assets in the community. Assets can be looked at as strengths or positive influences in the community. The definition of asset is “a useful or valuable thing, person, or quality.”
Sometimes it is easy to list out the assets in a community, but sometimes you can get stuck. It is especially important to recognize and acknowledge assets in communities that are viewed negatively, based on perceived or actual housing, educations, job opportunities, etc.
Sometimes we can get stuck in what we see as broken or wrong in our community and we can focus our efforts on fixing those problems, but when we do that, we miss out on all that is good and right.
Our first step in changing our perspective is to brainstorm the assets in the community. It may be helpful to break down assets into different categories to spark brainstorming. You could use a version of this chart in that process.
| Businesses/ Organizations | Events/ Activities | Education | Health | Religious/ Cultural Organizations | Gifts/ Skills/ Relationships |
What is important here is looking for things that are working well so they can be used as a starting point or a resource in whatever intervention is planned.
Not only will asset assessment help shift your perspective, but it will also foster a sense of pride and purpose for your community. It is a great place to start.
When you brainstorm assets, are you surprised to recognize something that you had overlooked before?
KATHY PIERBURG 