Community Engagement - definitions & principles

So having discussed the theological, biblical and practical basis of community engagement in my earlier posts, here are some ways of defining community engagement - between an outward looking church community or a group of missional-thinking Jesus-followers and their respective local neighbourhoods:
(1) where community needs and aspirations meet spiritual faith and resources;
(2) bringing people together (with transformative intent);
(3) entering the rhythms of community life [this one comes from Alan Hirsch];
(4) "playing away" - engaging with people in their own context [Stuart Murray];
(5) people of good faith partnering with people of goodwill around things of common concern.

Now I can list some of the principles of community engagement that I have discovered in my experience and reading:
(1) love your community, and get to know it well by frequenting the various places of gathering and listening to the voices of the neighbourhood;
(2) there are good, motivated and compassionate people working to help others and build community who may not have any church allegiance who we can form partnerships with;
(3) be adventurous and follow the promptings of God in walking through open doors and (gently) knocking on not yet open doors;
(4) imagine what the local community could look like if comprehensive and cohesive contributions were made by committed people;
(5) be truly local by allowing the local neighbourhood to reflect back into the worship of the church;
(6) pray for people and places - Dave Andrews says that community development cannot have value unless prayer is seen as indispensible and central;
(7) walk humbly, share life gently, build relationships patiently, become co-travellers, engage with the agendas of others while discovering gospel connections;
(8) be ready to make practical contributions - large and small, and fully follow through any commitments made (yet "good deeds" are only truly "good" if they are viewed that way by the recipient in terms of what their needs are);
(9) seek to increasingly involve more people to spread the load;
(10) be completely honest about where you are coming from and have no hidden agendas - Steve Addison promotes "medium-tension" activity i.e. fully connecting while remaining a distinct entity that does not deny or lessen one's central focus;
(11) be willing to lose debates without withdrawing, thus embracing consensus decision-making;
(12) watch for signs of manipulation or being boxed into a corner or pushed towards a party parochial position - promote enjoying people rather than using them;
(13) be in a position to always be available as the peace-maker, conflict resolver and reconciler;
(14) relationships forged during community engagement are of great value in and of themselves, irrespective of other outcomes; 
(15) people who experience God's love in the context of community engagement are already embedded in the culture of mutual service and thus well-positioned to serve others;
(16) have a long term view, and continually consider how God may be active.

Enjoy, not use

Another important point raised in the book that I was reading and commenting on last week - "Living without enemies", is that when working and interacting with people, we should carefully guard against 'using' others to meet our own ends, rather than simply 'enjoying' them for their uniqueness and intrinsic worth. I was reminded of this yesterday at the NOVO coaching course I was at, when in being in the role of a 'coachee', I was coached to consider ways of practically avoiding such behaviour in the context of my enthusiastic efforts toward planting our new church in Tarneit. So here are some possible responses: (1) Get to know people well by being interested in what they are interested in and through asking good questions; (2) Seek to forge mutual friendships, not just working relationships; (3) Pray for people's personal daily needs; (4) Listen carefully to what people want to contribute moreso than telling them what you need; (5) Thank people enthusiastically for whatever they are doing to help others.

The Lord's Manifesto

"The Lord's Prayer" is not just a prayer but also a 'manifesto'. Jesus gave us this prayer not just as a pattern for our prayer life, but also as a pattern for all our life. So when we pray to God the words, "Your Kingdom come; Your Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" ... we better be able to back this up in our actions! As we pray this, we have bought into bringing this desire to reality!! Some of the specific implications of this broad task are brought to light in Jesus adopting a job description first envisioned by Isaiah (Luke 4:16-21 - with of course Isaiah's reference to "vengeance" strategically removed). Here there is the commitment to transform economic circumstances, bring a new freedom to the oppressed, offer new insight to the blind-folded, and see past debts cancelled to open up new future possibilities. With profit we could also go back to a supreme text in the Hebrew Scriptures, Micah 6:6-8, which puts all triviality aside to centre in on what is central and crucial ... doing justice, loving kindness/mercy, walking humbly. James picks this up in his letter (1:27) with reference to the need to care for widows and orphans. So, may our neighbourhoods and communities and society as a whole be transformed through a working commitment to the Lord's manifesto ... Amen????

Being With

Speaking of 'being with' others, as I did in my previous post, this is exactly what God has always done - been with us. God, who is love, and can only claim to be love through being the relational Trinitarian God of Father (Parent), Son (Saviour) and Holy Spirit, has always been committed to travelling with human beings in their journey through life (and death), including, and possibly especially so, through any experience of suffering. If you doubt this, please give the possibility of opening up to God a thought. This is often quite hard to contemplate on your own, so this is an invitation to find a trusted other (who already knows God personally) to guide you into this. As the old Christian traditional belief rightly holds, God loved his human creations (and the whole world) so much, that God ushered his own Son, the epitome of God's own character, into the human environment, to seek to bring about transformation in both individual and communal life (refer John 3:16-17). Jesus himself, in his earthly life, reached out to all, especially to those who had been oppressed and excluded. This is certainly taking a desire to 'be with' seriously. God continues this very day to be on the Divine mission of connecting with people and inviting a relationship.

"Living Without Enemies"

Over the last couple of days I have been reading a wonderful book on pastoral care and community engagement called "Living Without Enemies" by Samuel Wells & Marcia A Owen. This book brilliantly explores concepts of: working for, working with, being with & being for. Many of us start out with understandable concern over certain community issues or lack of services and want to stand in solidarity with those affected ... 'being for'. Then we might be motivated enough to get involved in ways that practically help those in need ... 'working for'. But if we are wise, and we really want to make some long-term difference, we will offer ourselves to be part of a wider movement of human contributions, and facilitate organic grassroots responses, where the effort itself is part of the solution ... 'working with'. As we do this, then, in times of both despair and joy, we will be best placed to simply be with people - in silent solidarity, while closely listening, and deeply praying ... 'being with'. Surely this is the way to conceive of a church making a positive contribution to local community functioning! So those who see things along these lines - please jump on board. There are obviously many personal concerns out there in the Tarneit and Wyndham neighbourhoods - let's hear about these and embrace some transformational possibilites together.  

Wyndham Growth

Wyndham grows at a person an hour

Wyndham Council’s data shows a new resident moves to the municipality each hour. New research undertaken by the council shows the municipality will grow at a rate 24 people per day during the next 12 months. Further information from the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveals more than 12,000 new residents moved to Wyndham in 2010, equating to almost 9% growth rate between 2009 and 2010. Using this data, Wyndham is calling on State and Federal Governments to step up funding for infrastructure to support this growth.

Source: e-West 10.11.2011.

Prayer for Tarneit

Loving God, I pray for the residential area of Tarneit, where so many people already live, and where so many more families will soon move in - where so much community will be built. I pray that Your Spirit will engage with this area, in order that it will be an even greater place to live, and it will be a suburb in which people from a great variety of backgrounds interact well together in peace. I pray that our church planting efforts will be another source of blessing for Tarneit and its residents, and may many people respond to our invitations to be involved. May there be a groundswell of interest in working together to make Tarneit a good place to be, and where people can freely find their God-given potential and hope-filled future. In Jesus wonderful name I pray, Amen!