All of us want to know if our efforts make any difference. Most of us fear our impact is not what it should be.
Over the past few months, I’ve been asking pastors what comes to mind when they hear the phrase community impact. The responses ranged widely.
An inner-city pastor started talking about the pressure he feels: “It’s so dark out there. What happened to the light? Everybody is screaming for help. What will happen when the phone rings-will it be another overdose? Another rape? Another divorce? More child abuse and neglect? Another eviction? Whose lights are shut off now? The weight of the world is pressing down upon me. I don’t feel like I’m getting anywhere.”
A suburban pastor shared a similar discouragement but from a different cause: “I don’t seem to be having any impact at all-either on the community or the church. I get the feeling that whether I’m here or not doesn’t make any difference. What happens just happens.” He was ready to leave his church.
The pastor of a church in a small town talked about the impact the community had on him: “My number one struggle is the deadening, drip-drip effect of secularism on the church-and on me.”
And a pastor of a country church talked about the challenges of fitting into the local social patterns: “In a rural setting, the school calendar dominates the community. And it’s full of events. Without becoming subject to the whims of the district, how does a church promote its program without unhealthy rivalry with the people it’s trying to reach?”
Each of these church leaders faces something different-overwhelming human need, lethargic saints, a God-avoiding culture, over-busy lives-and yet they all have the same underlying concern: Am I accomplishing anything? Is the world any different for all my work? Most of us fear our impact is not as great as it should be.
While wrestling with my own guilt in this matter, I came across an insight from Augustine, who struggled with the church’s impact on the supposedly civilized Roman Empire and the definitely undercivilized barbarian hordes. According to Oxford professor Oliver O’Donovan (and reported by Duke historian George Marsden), Augustine suggests that all societies-Roman, Goth, capitalist, or communist-should be thought of as governed by terrorists.
“The founding of every earthly city can be traced back to a contest between rival groups of thugs, each intent on beating the other’s brains out. One group eventually wins and pacifies the territory,” writes Marsden in The Reformed Journal.
“The Mafia will keep the peace as long as it reigns supreme. … Christians should thank God for such peace and order, should obey the laws the successful terrorists impose, and should work for relatively more justice in the cities of the world. They should have no illusions, however. … We might find one set of cutthroats far superior to another. We might prefer the Mafia to Khadafy or to Idi Amin. But when we unmask the seemingly more respectable alternatives, they too turn out to be brutal killers. It’s part of the human condition.”
This total depravity renders every government, every community, rotten. In this light, we realize why we in the church struggle so greatly with our community impact: our world needs change badly, yet it is controlled by forces that resist God.
Yes, we continue to obey Christ’s command to love our neighbors. But Augustine reminds us the church’s answer to society’s woes is not another attempt to make communities nicer; it’s to point out that only one solution will be ultimately successful: throwing ourselves on the grace of God, revealed in Jesus Christ.
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As many of you know, several months ago LEADERSHIP launched a sister publication called LAY LEADERSHIP. This once-a-year resource is geared specifically for board members, key decision makers, and volunteers who make ministry happen in the local church. A number of churches are using it for lay leadership retreats or the orientation of new officers.
A few weeks ago I met a pastor who said, “We had a problem with LAY LEADERSHIP.”
“What was it?” I asked, ready to apologize for some editorial insensitivity or billing snafu.
“We ordered enough copies for all our board members. We planned to discuss the articles at our monthly meetings. But when the box arrived in the office, someone opened it and left it by the door. Between the office staff and people wandering by and seeing the articles and cartoons, the box was empty by that afternoon. Now we’re trying to track down the copies so our board members can use them.”
While attempting to be appropriately sympathetic, I confess I had an impish urge to say, “When volume 2 of LAY LEADERSHIP comes out next month, may such problems increase!”
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