The Blog

Thoughts and Musings from City of Refuge Church

From A to Z (community change from each individual)

Chad Hutton | Thursday, September 29, 2016 | Church, Uncategorized, Walking with Christ

If you want a community to change, then each individual must change. It is not best to start with changing the entire community as a whole. The focus must be on those people that make up that neighborhood. Although behavior modification works temporarily it doesn’t last. Long-term impact occurs from the inside out.

Change from within that lasts starts with the root. This is where the church has potential. The church is the people that proclaim and live out the good news of Jesus Christ. The church is a people that admit God has uprooted their old life of selfishness. Now they no longer live for themselves (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). Of course, you know some people say they are like this but never act like it. The money is not in what they speak but how they live.

Think of the alphabet like a “selfish meter.”

  • A = a spoiled brat
  • Z = a mature, other-centered person

Now, think of a community full of “A” people compared to one full of “Z” people. One is a dog eat dog, bite you in the back, painful place, while the other is a generous, healthy, safe place to dwell (although not perfect).

The way to get one community from A to Z is to get every individual from A to Z. The way to get people to change is offering a change of the heart. A good quote is that the heart of the problem is the problem of the heart. Bad communities like good communities are a heart issue. Communities are just made up of people for good or bad.

When the church lives to follow Christ which leads to loving and serving others, the community changes. People are changed from the inside out. People go from A to Z over time. The more people that are in this process, the more the community will transform.

We all want our neighborhood to be better. We want it to taste better, look better, and even literally smell better. It starts with us. It starts with our hearts changing. The ambiance of our heart affects our community. We want to be a church that helps the community go from A to Z. What to help? Contact us.