Standing on the corner of our church property with my dog Dexter by my side, I felt the Holy Spirit whisper, “THIS is what kin-dom looks like, my child.” A new walk had been completed on our property, and while Dexter and I walked, runners from the high school were sharing the same path around our church.

     On the grass beneath the steeple, five young girls were tossing a soccer ball around and rolling in the grass, laughing. They paused as they looked up at the steeple with a backdrop of puffy clouds in a perfectly blue sky.

      There was a young boy sitting on our reading bench with a book, while another stood at the Little Library choosing one for himself. I just smiled as I glanced at our picnic tables, students were gathered laughing and waiting for their friends to catch up with them and meet for the walk home.

     With a few small changes, our church had become alive and the center of activity for its neighbors. Later that day, a food truck would be on site to hand out boxes of produce to anyone struggling with grocery prices right now. I would hear one of the neighbors yell, “Hey, church lady! I am glad you all are still here!” I sat in my car and cried. Where did she think we had gone? Our neighbors right across the street apparently didn’t know we were even open. That’s a problem.

     Our church has been struggling. Our numbers are down, our giving is down, and when the treasurer said we needed to do something, our One Council did. The problem became the definition of doing something. Sometimes they didn’t mean that kind of something.

        For some, the only thing we can possibly do to turn a church around is to get more tithers in the pews OR close everything off and cut everything possible to keep the doors open as long as possible. For others, turning around is making people feel welcome on our property, and with their furry friends, too. It means taking risks and partnering with a 501 (c) (3) that provides the things our neighbors need that we can’t.

      Turning a church around means taking a hard look at ourselves. Are we more worried about a piece of trash left by a child who stopped reading a book than we are about the child? Are we more worried about a water bottle left by the picnic table than the student who had to spend two hours there waiting for a parent? Are we understandably more worried about the light bill increase than we are about life in the building that is giving us opportunity after opportunity if we only have eyes to see?

           As I sit and write this, a few tears are falling because this turnaround has caused a few hurt feelings. People often can’t see or understand right at first that we are actually on the same page. Others, and this is where the tears fall, have different ideas about transforming this hurting world, and there is nothing that any of us can do about that except love them more loudly than the hurt.

          We are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus for our neighbors. That isn’t a request; it’s a command. If your church is where ours is and you don’t know what to do next, pray TOGETHER and THEN reach out to the Church Transformation Team.

Kim