Pastor Steve's thoughts

A pastor in Springfield asked me an interesting question. Here's the question: "Would anyone notice if our church disappeared?" If our church ceased to exist would any city officials notice or members of the community? The people who attend Grace would notice but would anyone else?

As I contemplated the question, I didn't like my answer. My fear is that we are only making a difference in our "holy huddle." Furthermore, I'm not sure anyone outside the church would be affected. I would like to say our church makes a difference in the community and the people of Eugene would miss us.

What would it take for our church to make a significant impact? Realistically, our church is more inwardly focused than outwardly focused. As a whole, we care more about our church programs than we do about spiritually lost people. It still seems to me that a large portion of people are far to content...content with this an inward focus. Okay...maybe I'm being to hard on us. Am I?

On the other hand, let me share three positive examples that I've observed recently.
1. Jason Schar is the chairman of the Elder board and he presented the gospel to one of his employees a few weeks ago. He drew the bridge diagram and explained everything. Good job Jason.
2. Bob Kintigh presented the gospel to one of our church neighbors. Good job Bob.
3. I've seen Ben & Debbie Bauer introduce themselves to new people at our church. They did more than just exchange names. They showed genuine care and concern. Ben and Debbie went the extra mile.

Back to the inward focus vs. outward focus. I suppose the key word is balance. Our purpose statement reflects this balance: TO LOVE PEOPLE WHERE THEY'RE AT AND HELP THEM FOLLOW JESUS. The first part is an outward focus and the second part has an inward focus. The statement reflects a balance between Evangelism and Discipleship.

On the one hand, I'm not sure anyone in the general community would miss GCF if we ceased to exist next week. However, I might be surprised.