SERVING YOUR COMMUNITY - EXPONENTIAL 08 NOTES

Your Community
Rick Rusaw / Dave Mills
April 23, 2008
Exponential Conference

Rick Rusaw is the founding and Lead Pastor of Lifebridge Christian Church in Longmont, Colorado. For the last seventeen years, LCC has been making a difference for the kingdom of God by selflessly serving their community. Rick has written two excellent books on the subject of service: The Externally Focused Church and Living A Life On Loan. He has also founded the Externally Focused Network.

Rick’s passion for the gospel and practical love for people came through in a great session at Exponential ’08.

Dave Mills is the founder and director of Compassion By Design, a network that exists to equip churches to better serve their community.

Here are the notes from this session.


GREAT QUESTION: If our church vanished, would anyone in the community even notice? Would anyone weep? Would anyone even care?

Unfortunately, by and large, the church has abandoned our culture, retreated from the “playing field” and opted to create our own “Christian subculture.” We must re-engage our culture with the gospel of Jesus Christ.


Characteristics of Externally Focused Churches

1. XFC’s see themselves as VITAL to the health and well-being of their communities.

Externally focused churches believe that their communities, with all of their aspirations and challenges, cannot be truly healthy without the churches’ involvement. They recognize God has placed them in their communities to be salt, light, and leaven. They are not social workers – they are kingdom builders.

2. XFC’s believe that Christ-followers can’t grow until they begin to serve.

See Ephesians 2:8-10

Externally focused churches believe that Christians grow best when they are serving and giving themselves away to others. Ministry and service are normal expressions of Christian living.

3. XFC’s find a way to partner with existing ministries or human-service agencies that are already serving the community.

Nearly every community has a number of human-service agencies that are morally positive and spiritually neutral and are doing their best to meet the needs of the under-served and under-resourced people of the community. Such agencies include food banks, homeless shelters, emergency family housing, and safe homes for abused women.

In addition, externally focused churches recognize that “parachurch” ministries are effective in ministering to specific target audiences (such as youth, unwed mothers, and the unemployed.) Rather than starting a new ministry, these human-serve agencies and “parachurch” organizations can serve as “partner ministries” of a local congregation. Churches can simply join what is already happening in the community, without having to start from scratch.

4. Externally focused churches are convinced that good deeds create good will, which creates the opportunity to share good news. Good deeds and good news can’t and shouldn’t be separated.

Engaging the community with good news and good deeds is not a tactic or even a foundational strategy of externally focused churches; it is at their very core of who they are.

XFC’s view service as a long-term way to “connect” with the people in their community.

While the ULTIMATE MOTIVE of an XFC is to share the good news of Jesus Christ, XFC’S have no ULTERIOR MOTIVE. XFC’s have no agenda but to SERVE. They serve with NO STRINGS ATTACHED.

5. XFC’s are evangelistically effective.

The following is from the XF Network:

It’s no secret that the church in North America is not hitting the ball out of the park evangelistically. Church attendance has dropped from a high of 49% in the 1991 to 43 % in 2002. While the U. S. population grew by 9 % between 1992 and 1999, the median adult attendance per church service has dropped 12% during the same time.

The good news for externally focused churches, according to the FACT study, is “congregations with a strong commitment to social justice and with direct participation in community outreach ministries are more likely to be growing than other congregations.”

The realities of these statistics show that an increasingly large portion of our population has no idea “how to go to church.” Externally focused churches have the advantage of deploying people into the community where they can be church through their love and service.

Although these churches serve their communities expecting nothing in return, many people are drawn into the kingdom through their presence. Fewer people are asking how to be saved, but they are looking for “authenticity” in relationships. When the people who talk about a loving God demonstrate love, the gap between doubt and faith is narrowed.

Two Websites Worth Checking Out:

Externally Focused Network
Compassion By Design


How To Determine Your Church’s “SWEET SPOT” for Service:

Imagine three concentric circles…

• Your Communities Needs and Dreams (One Circle)
• God’s Mandate and Desire (Second Circle)
• Your Church’s Calling (Third Circle)

The place where these three circles intersect represents your church’s SWEET SPOT


PRACTICE: Dave Mills strongly suggested that every church conduct a “Needs Assessment” in their community. Talk to as many community leaders as possible about how your church can “serve” their community. Do not approach these community leaders with YOUR AGENDA, but with a sincere desire to truly LISTEN. Information on conducting the Needs Assessment is available on the Compassion By Design website.

PRACTICE: Allot time each week each week to meeting with community leaders…. From the mayor, police chief, school superintendents, principals, teachers, etc. Talk to as many people as possible because you never know who can open up a crucial door that will expand your opportunity to serve and increase your influence…

RECOMMENDATION: Rick Rusaw recommends that every church plant begin selflessly serving their community for six to twelve months before they officially LAUNCH.