Building a Community for Other

     It has taken me awhile to do, because I’ve been juggling a few books, but I just finished reading Walt Kallestad’s “Turn Your Church Inside Out”.  I’ve never heard of him or his church but I’m glad I read this book.  He really helps put a lot of things into perspective.
     Most churches are inwardly focused.  We’ve become content to meet every week and pat each other on the back, while completely ignoring our communities around us.  On the off chance that someone does wander into our churches from the outside world, we aren’t even prepared to minister to them.  To be honest, I have to wonder if I would even be comfortable in my home church if it wasn’t my HOME church.
     And so Walt suggests that we need to shift our paradigm to become more outwardly focused.  Some people are hesitant when they hear a statement like that because they think that the church must become shallow and less focused on discipleship, but that’s not at all the case.  In fact when you have a mission like this you will need to become MORE focused on deepening relationships with Christ.
     This book is not a step by step guide on how to become a church for others, but it is full of practical ideas that can help kick start the paradigm shift.  One of my favorite parts of this book is that he talks about dreaming for Christ.  When’s the last time we took some time to dream about what the church could be like?  
     Lately I’ve been doing some of that.  Not necessarily a lot, but I’ve found the more I dream the more a passion inside me grows to become reliant on Christ.  I believe, as the Bible says, that He wants to build His church...I guess we just need to hand it over to Him.

Rainman