Q&A with Gabe Lyons

There’s a great opportunity for individuals who belong to churches to be more tangibly present in their communities. Because people do distrust institutions, the best opportunity to change those perceptions is through one-on-one interactions.

We’ve perhaps gotten comfortable in our institutions and just believed that the Church would always be respected in American culture. Now, we realize that’s not holding, especially in the younger generations.
Not only does the Church lack respect, but in many ways, it is receiving antagonism from those who disagree with Christian beliefs and don’t see the Church as helpful in society.

As Christians move out into the community, through tangible interactions with their neighbors, with their colleagues at work, their shop owners and people engaged in all walks of life, they’re able to bring a taste of God’s love and the Church’s mission into those spaces.

This is a double-edged sword, as this conversation on socialism has an opportunity embedded in it. The opportunity is that, at a higher level than ever before, people are recognizing the needs of the community, such as addressing mental health, helping the homeless or helping people recover from addictions and find long-term healing. They’re realizing how much our children need support in their studies, tutoring and opportunities after school. So, many are turning to the government to provide solutions in the absence of the Church’s presence. This invites the Church to take note and to show up in their communities in even more tangible ways.

One of the Church’s great opportunities is to partner more with existing social sector organizations who are meeting needs in the community so that the Church can be a presence in the midst of what’s already taking place.

When we do that, people start to realize and recognize what has always been true: that faith and religion tend to motivate philanthropy and volunteerism at a higher level than lack of faith or religion.

I think that pastors must teach, train, equip and disciple their people to understand that being the Church is not about attending the Sunday morning experience or showing up in the church building. It’s largely about what’s happening every day of the week, wherever they’ve already been called. There’s theological training or theological education that has to happen at a higher degree within the Church to empower this kind of thinking so that churches aren’t competing with outside volunteer activities, but instead embracing and celebrating all of the ways their people are involved in the community.

I think the more this is modeled from church programming platforms—celebrating volunteerism, elevating people who are leading different activities in the community or solving problems and doing good—it starts to build within the church culture a sense that “This is where we come to be sent out”—not “This is where we come just to be filled up.”

A good follow-up to the first area of teaching is asking, How do we actually create true community? We have this misconception that community is found by creating a small group that sits in a circle and has conversation. Actually, community is only formed at the deepest levels when we work and do things together. The people you find yourself actually in community with are the ones with whom you’re sharing common goals, doing things together or sacrificing for one another. Therefore, this very act of serving in the community becomes what builds internal strength within the Church. Serving doesn’t actually take you away from the Church; it draws you into closer relationship with the people you’re serving alongside.