What is Community Engagement?

It’s a way of thinking that shapes the way the whole church and its people operate.

Moving from program to core.

Community Engagement has to work out of the heart of the Senior Pastors, otherwise it will always remain a department, a program or something done by a ‘fanatical few’.

Moving from doing outreach to city-wide transformation.

Outreach is often event based, largely dependent on timing and will always be restricted by budget. Transformation is the business of consistently finding your church in spaces where others are not. City-wide transformation allows you to shape conversations, policies and even architecture, because your city trusts you.

Moving from Sunday to Monday.

Moving from Sunday to Monday asks the question, ‘Who is it that we exist for?’ Are we a church that only tries to get people to come on a Sunday or is Monday an opportunity to be the church? Moving from Sunday to Monday is a movement, not just for the church corporately to see their facilities and pastors as great assets to the community, but also for each person part of that church to see themselves as incredibly valuable wherever they find themselves Monday to Saturday.

Moving from finding a need and meeting it to find what your city loves and join them.

Community engagement gives you an opportunity to partner with many things going on in your community; we don’t need to think of an idea to be a part of it. What is it that our community loves to do and that we can join them in it?

Why Community Engagement?

The vast majority of Australians aren’t waking up Sunday morning wondering, ‘What is a great church service I can go to?’ These Australians are the very ones we want to engage, because although they may not be thinking church services, they do have eternity placed in their heart.

To put a stark reality on what Australians think of church, a survey by Mcrindle Research placed church buildings as 13th on the list of something the community would like to see more of to enhance the community. To provide some context:  ‘leash free dog parks’ sit three places higher! People would rather have a place to run their dog around than a place to worship on Sunday. However, at number 3 is a community centre. What if our churches looked more like a place that enhances our community seven days a week. To think like a community engaging church is to have a facility that provides practical support but is also a place to engage, to relax, be social and all the things Australians like to do. Our churches should be a well in our communities, a place where people come for something they think they need, but leave with something so much more.

National Team