We're sitting with our small group on a Monday night discussing ideas for being "missional," but no one plan seems to fit. Unable to come to any conclusions, we pray for guidance and return to our homes.

The night's discussion echoes a larger conversation that the leaders of our congregation, First Evangelical Free Church of Colorado Springs, have been having for a while. How do we make a tangible difference in our community?

A church of about 400 on the far west side of town, many of our church's attenders drive in from Divide, Cascade, Manitou Springs, and other mountain towns along Colorado's Front Range. More live near the church in the neighborhoods nestled into the ridge bordering the western edge of the city. Our home is a few miles east. It wasn't proximity or fancy programs that drew us to the church; it was people with a gift for loving their neighbors.

Two months after that unresolved small group meeting, on the afternoon of Saturday, June 23, a relatively small fire begins in ...