What Does Your Church Provide For The Community?

Interesting article by the Barna Group on how communities see churches and how churches see themselves... http://www.barna.org/congregations-articles/502-do-churches-contribute-to-their-communities

Here are some of the ways how Churches believe they can impact their communities and my own interpretation of the graphs they posted showing how involved churches are in these areas:

Addressing Poverty - HUGE
Cultivating Biblical Values (aka. Worship Services, Prayer) - NOT SO HUGE
Serving Youth / Family / Elderly - NOT SO HUGE
Doing Ministry (aka. Bible Study, Preach Gospel) - NOT SO HUGE
Assisting In Recovery - NOT SO HUGE
Addressing Workplace / Financial / Emotional Issues - SMALL
Serving The Community - SMALL
Being Inclusive - NOT AT ALL
Engaging Politically - NOT AT ALL

My take away is that Churches see themselves primarily as a meeting hall or an educational facility. The New Testament says the Church is the Body of Christ. How can we get back to the original intent that Jesus had for His Church?

I think we need to consider the following thoughts...
We need to return to the gospel of Grace
We need to be the carriers of God's Presence that we are
We need to know God through His Word
We need to teach people to follow Jesus versus changing culture
We need to replace social justice with the Great Commission
We need to teach the Bible as a book to be practiced, not merely a book to be studied
We need to return to a simple gospel message that is based on the power of God, not great powerpoint slides, video intro or clever titles
We need to return to a simple faith that is built on the Bible alone
We need to return to a life of prayer

When the Church becomes the Body of Christ and brings Jesus to people... two things will happen... first, we will be forced to confront and turn from our own unbelief about the reality of God's power and might in our lives and second, the world will see Jesus.