Comments on: A church that missed connecting with the community

By: EvangelismCoach

EvangelismCoach — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 21:06:45 +0000

Good to “see” you Nancy and thanks for sharing.

Do you think that any families found their way to connect with the church because of this hosting?

If one could do it all over again, what additional steps do you think could taken where relationships could be built, or where the spiritual needs of families could be shared?

How could this event go beyond a public meeting space? This is where I think the church with the dog park overlooked. No intentional effort to build any geniune relationships with the users.

Chris.

By: Nancy Brouthers

Nancy Brouthers — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 22:21:10 +0000

Hi Chris,
Our church is determined to reach out to and be a real part of the community, and has always allowed community usage of the warehouse-style facilities, at no charge. For several years one of the local high schools used it as the site for their annual week-long Adv. Placement testing. There was plenty of parking for the students who drove themselves, and school buses always brought everyone else – plenty of room for the buses, as well. Church staff and volunteers even provided (free) pizza and drinks for the students between morning and afternoon tests. And of course there was never official prayer before testing began, but informed church members prayed for the students (off-site) throughout the week. Everyone seemed to appreciate it, and the testing atmosphere was relaxed and friendly compared to the regular classrooms with uncomfortable desks. Would you believe that after a few years the high school counseling staff who were responsible for set-up and clean-up (aided by church folks) decided it was too much trouble for them and moved the testing back to campus? Not sure what more the church could’ve done, but it was great while it lasted!

By: EvangelismCoach

EvangelismCoach — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:40:23 +0000

It is a great idea. The church has a natural community center.

The failure here is that nobody from the church has a dog, and nobody from the church connects with the groups that meets on its campus.

I hope that as you plan the vision for your church, that there are people in your church that would see this as a natural bridge building context.

Good to see you online again.

Chris.

By: Bert Riley

Bert Riley — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:21:18 +0000

WOW! I am currently in Dallas, TX helping my daugther while she recovers from surgery. This afternoon, while driving over to get a hamberger, we passed a dog park. I mentioned that I thought that would be a great idea for my new church in Dover, DE. We are blessed to have over 20 acres of land and I thought that it would be an excellent opportunity to reach out to the community by having a place for dog owners to come and meet. And, as I open my email, God has placed this message in front of me. Although I will be here for a couple of more weeks, my first mission when I get home is to start looking into what it will take to get a project like this started. Praise God!

By: Bookmarks about Bookmarks

Bookmarks about Bookmarks — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 03:15:23 +0000

[...] – bookmarked by 5 members originally found by SkaterChickSakura13 on 2008-09-18 Evangelism and Dogs http://www.evangelismcoach.org/2008/07/evangelism-and-dogs – bookmarked by 5 members originally [...]

By: Welcome Church Visitors

Welcome Church Visitors — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:09:25 +0000

[...] your community outreach (e.g. food pantry, medical outreach, Dog Park, Hot Dog’s for Jesus, Free coffee on Mondays, Christmas [...]

By: More on Outreach «

More on Outreach « — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:00:57 +0000

[...] on Outreach On 7/7 and 7/10 I posted articles about reaching others. Today, the Evangelism Coach has a great article that just makes my point. We often make great services to ‘reach’ [...]