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To finish my series of posts on ‘My Theology of Ministry’, I’d like to discuss the final portion of this statement: Ministry is best done toward a community, through community, and in community.

Of the three portions of this statement, pastors (and especially church planters) fail to achieve this last one most often.  The concept of targeting a specific community and even ministering to that community through community is understandable.  It’s the last part of this statement that forces us to go against everything our culture teaches us.  We aren’t individuals who’s success and failure rests solely on our own shoulders, but rather we need to be a community of ministers reaching a city/region where the success and failure of our ministry is dependent on each part of that ‘ministry community’ reaching their respective communities.

As ministers we often preach that life is best lived ‘in community’ but we can fail to ‘live in community’ ourselves.  It’s been proven that church plants succeed best when a church planter is part of a church planting peer group.  I would venture to guess that the same could be said for ministers in general.  Why?  Because we all need each other.  Ministers don’t survive long when they’re in it for themselves or by themselves.   So remember, Ministry is best done toward a community, through community, and in community.

As I mentioned in my previous post, my approach to planting churches and ministry in general can be summed up in this one statement: Ministry is best done toward a community, through community, and in community.

In this post, I’d like to tackle the second portion, the idea of doing ministry through community. I already covered the importance of ministering to a community, meaning you understand who it is God has called you to serve and reach in my previous post.

The idea of ministering through community, though, takes this a step further. In today’s ‘ministry world’ small groups have become widely used and implemented at churches of all sizes. Although small groups are a part of ministering through community, they are not the end all. Beginning a simple program will not accomplish something that must first be valued. This value is creating a culture of community in a church. The best way to discover if your church has or will have community is to ask these few questions:

• Do people in your church enjoy each other?
• Are people spending time with one another outside of church activities?
• Why do people come back to your church?

Although small groups can help create community, this must be something that happens even apart from small groups. It should happen before and after your services. Before and after meetings. It should be part of everything your church does. Jesus did not give the great message of the gospel to a stale, cold institution, He gave it to a life-breathing community of believers. Now, I understand just simply creating community will not grow your church or expand your impact in a specific community. But when you couple the idea of doing ministry through community toward a community, you now are creating community with a purpose: the purpose of reaching the lost. In my next post, I’ll address the idea of doing ministry in community (yes, that’s different then ‘through community).

I’m going to take the next few posts to explain my theology of ministry.  The main concept is this:  Ministry is best done toward a community, through community, and in community. In this first post, I’ll approach the idea of doing ministry toward a community.

So many churches strive to reach their community, but they never identify what their target is.  The popular saying reminds us that ‘if you don’t target anything, you won’t every hit anything.”  The same is true in the church.  If a church is to be effective in ministering and reaching a community, they must first identify why God has called them to that community and who are they called to reach.  A church (especially a smaller church) cannot reach everyone all at once.  Some churches will target young families, young adults, the unchurched, the de-churched, or another segment. Regardless of what your target is, how you do ministry will be shaped around what your target is, but I’ll have more on that in my next post.

Have you identified your church’s target?