3 Ways the iPhone Changed Leadership

by: Eric Geiger

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Before we had kids, Kaye taught public school for eight years. When we found out we were having our first daughter, we decided she would take step away from teaching for several years. Her last day as a teacher (the first time around) was one day in June of 2007.

The first iPhone was released on June 29^th that same year (more on that later).

After our daughters started going to school, Kaye decided to go back to teaching. She missed it and wanted to make an impact in that way again. She went back to the classroom in the fall of 2015.

While she was away from the classroom, the smartphone grew more and more ingrained into the culture and in the regular rhythms of how people live. I think if Kaye had been teaching through those years, she likely would not have noticed the changes in such a visible way, as she would have experienced them incrementally. But to go back to teaching after eight years off, the same eight years where the smartphone took deep root, was initially jarring.

Here are three changes Kaye noticed, as a teacher, after eight years off (the same eight years after the advent of the iPhone):

Speed of Communication

Before the smartphone, communication with parents and other teachers may take place over several days. An email would be sent and a day later the response would be sent back. The process was slower but also allowed people to spend more time formulating their responses and thinking about the implications of the decision. The smartphone has sped up decision-making. At times this is great and at times the result is decisions that are not been well-informed.

Expectations for Response

During the first eight years of Kaye’s teaching career parents emailed, and their expectation for response was within a day or so. When Kaye went back to teaching, and everyone had been using smartphones for several years, the expectation parents had on response time was exponentially higher. If some parents did not receive an answer back within a few hours, they assumed something was wrong – and not that Kaye was actually teaching a room full of kids. Our phones have trained us to expect faster responses. We both benefit from and can be enslaved by the heightened expectation for response time because of our phones.

Decreased Focus

While we love to believe we can multi-task, research continually proves we are not nearly as good at it as we think. Just google “multitasking makes you stupid” for a list of articles based on research, including one study that shows multitasking impacts your brain in a meeting more than smoking weed in a meeting would. Before the iPhone, the typical parent-teacher conference was different than it is now. You were able to get through 30 minutes of content and conversation in, well, in thirty minutes. Now those 30 minutes are often less focused. There is more “let me send this really quick to our babysitter,” or “my spouse is running late, let me check something really fast.” The smartphone on the table puts in everyone’s mind that this meeting can be interrupted at any moment, and thus lowers the effectiveness of it.

Are there benefits, though, Eric? Absolutely. When Kaye went back to teaching, she rarely had to run back to school to print something. It was on a doc on her phone. She could also easily check appointments, handle details in a quick text, and connect with other teachers in a group text.

But watching Kaye go back to teaching helped me realize that the phone has impacted us/ me more than we often realize.

> Read more from Eric.

Tags: Eric Geiger, Technology, iPhone

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5 Keys to Leading an Omnichannel Church

by: Eric Geiger

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Recently Dave Adamson wrote a compelling article on the future of the church based on the digital tools that church leaders now have at their disposal. He applied the term “omnichannel” to church practice, and his article was the first time I have seen someone do so. Dave does this type of work with churches, so he was not just winging it and throwing out an idea. If you have background in ecommerce or marketing, you are familiar with the term “omnichannel.” It represents the thinking that a company should align all of its channels so that a customer has a seamless experience across all. In other words, the customer could easily flow back and forth between a physical store and an online store and other touch points.

If you apply “omnichannel” to a local church, as Dave has done, you essentially decide it does not matter which channel the person you are serving utilizes to interact with your church or consume content from your church, and you want all the channels (such as your podcast, your live-stream, and your physical location) to offer a similar experience.

Here are five things I like about applying “omnichannel” to a local church.

1. It is the reality of what is already happening. People are interacting (or desiring to interact) with your church in multiple ways. People may attend one week and watch online while traveling the next. Desiring that person to receive consistent teaching from his/her church in a unified manner is a good thing.
2. It forces leaders to think about people not just content. We don’t just teach the Word; we teach the Word to real people and we must understand the people we are teaching.
3. It can help break down ministry silos. Because people move across live streaming, podcast, and the worship gathering, staff in those areas must be coordinated.
4. It helps churches use tools to reach people. Just as the Lord used the advent of the printing press to spread the Bible and the advent of radio to broadcast C.S. Lewis and Billy Graham messages, every new technology is an opportunity to distribute the good news.
5. It helps churches think about the other 167 hours. Perhaps the most challenging thought that Dave offered is the challenge to think about all the hours in the lives of the people we serve, and not just the weekly gathering.

And here are two cautions I have about applying the “omnichannel” term to a local church. Though I appreciate the desire to connect people where they are and connect them more than one hour in a weekly gathering, ministry leaders must do so while also thinking about these two realities:

1. A church is not a base of customers. The article was not advocating that, but the term “omnichannel” was developed to help companies think about their customers and their channels, and we must be cautious of any term (or thinking) that causes us to think of our church as a base of customers. A church is much more than a customer base. She is the bride of Christ and the family of God. She is a gathering of God’s people who are in community together and have joined Christ on His mission.
2. Consumption must not be the ultimate goal. We must not desire the people in our churches to merely consume religious goods and services, but to grow in community and to live on mission. If we settle for consumption, we are settling for a vision of local church that is too small. Yes, let’s use the tools at our disposal and let’s sync them together to communicate the message of Jesus. But let’s be sure that we don’t equate consumption with discipleship.

> Read more from Eric.

Tags: Eric Geiger, Omnichannel, Omnichannel Church

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The Shape of Your Influence – Part 2

by: Eric Geiger

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The great (and true) quote that “we shape our buildings and our buildings shape us” is credited to Winston Churchill. Other less insightful quotes are credited to him on the Internet as well, but this quote is really good because it is so true. As I shared in this post, leaders form their organizations by forming the values, mission, strategy, measures and leadership development approaches of those organizations. Today I want to offer five more things leaders can shape that in turn shape the organizations they lead. Here is part two of ten things leaders shape that in turn shape the organizations they lead.

1. Values
2. Mission
3. Strategy
4. Measures
5. Leadership development

6. Buildings

Kenton Beshore, my predecessor and genius friend, walked me to the center of Mariners church campus one day, a spot right outside our worship center. He said, “Tell me what you see and don’t see.” After I stood there unsure of what to say for a few seconds, he said, “you can see every entrance to every building but you cannot see a car in the parking lot. The facility was designed to keep you here. When you leave a worship service you do not see your car or a parking lot. We wanted that so that it would help you stay and connect with others.” The facility choices at Mariners have formed the culture I enjoy, as people really do stay and connect with one another.

7. Moments

There are moments in a ministry or organization that form the culture. Moments where there is clarity of belief or direction. Moments where memories are made. Moments where people are invited to internalize and commit to what is most important. Moments of honest dialogue with leaders. Wise leaders steward these moments well and don’t rush through them.

8. Structures

How an organization or ministry is structured is no small matter. The structure declares who will collaborate together and who will just politely nod at one another in the hallway. The structure impacts who is ultimately accountable, how communication occurs, and what priorities receive the most attention. Leaders shape the organizational structure and the organizational structure shapes them.

9. Systems

Andy Stanley once said, “Systems create culture.” A system has a powerful impact on shaping the culture because it operationalizes an important value. For example, if there is an effective system for recruiting and training leaders, the system helps create a culture of leadership development. We cultivate the cultures of our organization by the systems we create and communicate.

10. Policies

Because policies impact behavior, they impact how people in an organization relate to one another. By policies I do not mean the “rules’ in writing that no one takes seriously or have not been updated in years, but the standards that really matter (by the way, these should be the actual policies too). Leaders have the ability to set and shape these standards as they definitely shape the culture. Sometimes the policies conflict with the vision of the team, and when this occurs the policy must be changed as quickly as possible. A common example I noticed when I consulted churches was a church leader who would articulate a desire to develop future staff and hire from within the church, yet a policy that stated all staff must have a specific degree. The vision and the policy were at odds and the policy actually impacted the behavior, in most cases, more than the vision did.

We shape our buildings, moments, structures, systems, and policies, and they in turn shape us. So shape wisely, leaders, shape wisely.

> Read more from Eric.

Tags: Building, Eric Geiger, Structure, Systems, Things that shape us, policies

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The Shape of Your Influence – Part 1

by: Eric Geiger

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Winston Churchill is credited with the insightful quote, “we shape our buildings and our buildings shape us.” He was correct; the buildings we gather in shape the culture of those in the buildings. The statement can be applied to other influences as our ministries and organizations are shaped by more than the buildings we utilize. Here are ten things that leaders shape that in turn shape the organizations those leaders lead.

1. Values

Values that are celebrated, championed, and reinforced shape the culture of a ministry or organization, and leaders set the tone and pace for how those values are emphasized. Unwise leaders arrive and declare a new set of values, as if they can speak a set of values into existence and immediately declare a culture out of nothing. Only the Lord can declare something out of nothing, but leaders can shape the values and shape how the values are operationalized.

2. Mission

Values are about identity and “how we live around here,” and the mission is about what the ministry or organization does. Whenever a leader clarifies mission, the clarity shapes the activity of the ministry or organization. An unclear mission shapes the culture too, but in adverse ways. When the mission is not clear and not consistently heralded, confusion and conflicting goals abound.

3. Strategy

The strategy is how a ministry or organization works to accomplish the mission. Leaders shape the strategy; they lead the team to decide where time and resources are allocated. That strategy shapes how the ministry or organization serves people. It shapes how people’s time is utilized and where energy is invested. Leaders shape strategy and strategy shapes organizations.

4. Measures

Leaders are partly responsible to decide what is measured, and what is measured as most important. What is evaluated and measured shapes the priorities and activity of a team in a ministry or organization. A scorecard impacts how people behave. If the wrong things are measured, the wrong behaviors are rewarded. If nothing is measured, then people invent their own priorities. If what is measured is closely connected to the mission, then the scorecard helps focus people on what is most important.

5. Leadership development

Leaders are responsible to develop future leaders. How leaders form future leaders greatly impacts the future of the ministry or organization. The values, skills, and beliefs that are poured into future leaders today will be poured out in the organization tomorrow.

Leaders must care about the values, mission, strategy, measures, and approach to leadership development in the organizations they lead because the organization today and the organization tomorrow are formed by those things. As you read the list, are there 1-2 items that require more of your thinking and focus? Shape them well as they shape the team you are leading.

> Read more from Eric.

Next week: Part 2

Tags: Eric Geiger, Leadership Influence, Team Influence

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6 Yellow Flags of Using Too Much Data

by: Eric Geiger

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Data can be a leader’s friend as it is wise for leaders to leverage data in their decision-making. While it is foolish for leaders to ignore data, it is equally unhealthy for leaders to obsess over it. Here are six problems with obsessing over data:

1. You can find your worth in the numbers.

There are some leaders who find their worth in their weekly or daily dashboards. Ministry leaders are not immune to the temptation. In our sinfulness, a desire to reach people can become about the number and what that number says about our effectiveness. Having served in a rapidly growing environment, I learned the sinfulness in my own heart and needed God’s grace constantly to rescue me from finding my worth in a spreadsheet.

2. You can allow one metric to drive you.

Leaders who wisely use data look at more than one metric, as it is possible to allow one metric to drive you and lead in ways that are not healthy for the whole. For example, in church ministry, if a leader is consumed only with the weekend attendance metric, investments will be heavily weighted toward the weekend and away from focus on leadership development, discipleship, and sending others.

3. You can miss the bigger picture.

Some leaders analyze and analyze and miss the proverbial forest for the trees of data that consume them. By living in the data, they can fail to deliver overarching direction.

4. You can miss small data.

With all the emphasis on big data (learning through looking at data in multiple ways), Martin Lindstrom released his book Small Data to emphasize the importance of observing real people and not simply looking at numbers. If you obsess over data, you can miss the stories of the real people that are more than just data. If you obsess over data, you can lose your heart for the people the data represents.

5. You live reactively instead of proactively.

Those who obsess over data are likely to react continually to it instead of proactively charting a course and letting the data speak into the execution of that course. Those who obsess over data don’t lead with conviction but can allow the data to lead them in a myriad of different directions.

6. You can re-create what has already been created.

In software development it has become common to release iterations, gather customer feedback, and adjust to that feedback. Some have pointed out that while the approach is valid, it results in creating what has already been created. If you are going to lead a team that meets a different need, data is important, but you have to look at data in light of your overarching mission.

Look at data. Learn from data. But don’t find your worth in it, and don’t obsess over it.

> Read more from Eric.

Tags: Eric Geiger, church data, dangers from too much data, data obsession

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5 Ways to Grow Mission-Hearted Leaders

by: Eric Geiger

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Every leader needs a compass in their head. The mission answers “Question Zero”: “What are we ultimately supposed to be doing?” It makes the overall direction of the church unquestionable and points everyone in that direction. The mission is a golden thread that weaves through every activity of the church. It brings greater meaning to the most menial functions of ministry.

It’s true that every church has a General Calling to glorify God and make disciples. Every church that has ever been, or will ever be, has that same universal calling. But each church also has a Specific Calling. God has called your church to do things that no church before you or after you can do. There are good works prepared in advance just for you, and your mission should reflect that! (For example, take a look at the different mission statements of these 10 churches in Dallas, Texas, all within 30 minutes of each other. Each has a General Calling, but it’s fascinating to see how their uniqueness is stamped into their mission.)

As you can imagine, the leadership team of a church is critical to the activation of the unique mission of the church. But as Dallas Willard says, “Familiarity can breed unfamiliarity.” Things that once stoked the fires of our heart can grow colder as we spend more and more time around it. In short…we just get used to it and the thing that made it once seem extraordinary, now seem ordinary.

Even if your church has a profound missional mandate and a mission statement that’s more sticky and viral than any Nike campaign, the sharpness of it can dull over time for your church leadership team. It is essential that we are constantly letting the calling of our church reach deep into our heart and shape what we do. (If this idea of a mission and vision shaped church really piques your imagination, check out this free download from my friend Will Mancini, who’s done a Visual Summary of his book Church Unique.)

Here are five ways you can grow your team’s heart for your mission, using five different kinds of spiritual practices:

1. Pray together.

We all know that the mission of the church is inherently spiritual, but it’s easy to let the spiritual fire die down. If there’s anything that can engage us with this spiritual task, it’s connecting our heart to the heart of the Father for the mission. In the same way that Paul says that sometimes we don’t fully know how to pray but the “Spirit helps us in our weakness,” so too will praying as a team into the mission ignite the flame again.

2. Read stories from the Word of God.

Find fresh stories in the Bible that connect to the specific calling of your church. Who are the main characters? Why do they connect on an emotional and visceral level? How do these stories connect to the essence of who God has shaped your church to be?

3. Guard the deposit.

Paul instructs Timothy to “guard the deposit entrusted to you.” In your church and in your leadership team, God has placed a very particular deposit through your spiritual gifts, redemption stories, “hand of God” experiences and leadership. Does your team know what those things are? Can they name them? Can they see how God has sovereignly brought those things together?

4. Identify five new stories.

As leaders, we often times we use the same stories to point to what the mission looks like when it’s realized (we see this happen often in the Bible). Maybe it’s a miracle that happened or transformation in someone’s life early on in the life of the church and it because a kind of story passed down from person to person. But what about the here and now? Have each staff person identify five stories in the life of the church in the last 12 months that signify what the mission of the church is about.

5. Fast together.

There are all sorts of reasons to fast, but growing the heart for mission in the spirit of your team is a great one. Whether it’s giving up food for 24 hours or social media for a week, set aside a dedicated amount of time for fasting (which includes you!) and each time they feel the desire for food or to check social media, pray that God’s mission would be accomplished in and through your church family.

As leaders, it’s easy to assume that what’s clear to us and what lights the fire for the Gospel in our heart burns the exact same way. Whether you use these five ideas or have others of your own, I greatly encourage you to continue to recast the mission of your church into the hearts of your best leaders.

If you would like some help with developing or clarifying your church’s mission, I highly recommend the team at Auxano. Over a period of a few months, a navigator can meet with your team to see great clarity in your mission.

Tags: Eric Geiger, Mission, Vision, Vision Framing

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How to Close the Gap Between Consumption and Community

by: Eric Geiger

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Harvard professor Robert Putnam wrote Bowling Alone, which has been called a landmark book by many sociologists. Written nearly twenty years ago, it has proven to be prophetic. Putnam’s book was based on research about the deterioration of community in American culture. He researched lots of community organizations and networks but the title comes from what he saw with bowling leagues. While more people were bowling over the previous fifteen years, participation in bowling leagues was greatly decreasing over the same period of time. There were more bowlers but fewer people bowling together. Instead of bowling in community, people were bowling alone. Putnam warned that the move toward isolation would ultimately hurt people and communities. Putnam issued his warning before restaurant booths would be filled with people staring at their iPhones instead of enjoying conversations with each other and before binge-watching Netflix would become common in our culture. The move to isolation has gotten easier for us since Putnam first lamented the decline of community. Netflix makes it hard to stop watching. You are already opted-in to keep watching. You have five very fast seconds to opt-out. Social media engineers work on algorithms to keep us staring at our phones.

Community is becoming more and more counter-cultural. What should a church do? If people can bowl alone, can they “church” alone? Do we embrace the cultural reality or do we push against it? We absolutely must push against the cultural reality of increasing isolationism and encourage believers to be in community.

While ministry leaders are wise to use the tools of the day (technology) to spread the message of Christ, ministry leaders must hold tightly to the communal nature of the Church. The word for Church in the Scripture is from the Greek word Ekklesia, which literally means “the called out ones” and was defined in the cultural context as “a gathering.” Church is plural. It is not alone. Church is a gathering of the “called out ones.” Because of this a church must not make consumption the goal, but believers in community and on mission the goal.

In the Old Testament, God’s people were commanded to worship in community. Notice the plural nature of the call to worship in Psalm 95:

• Come, let us shout joyfully to the Lord (v1).
• Let us enter his presence with thanksgiving (v2).
• Come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lordour Maker (v6).

But it is not just “an Old Testament thing.” The writer of Hebrews captures the plural nature of our worship in Hebrews 10:

• Let us draw near with a true heart (v22)
• Let us hold to the confession (v23)
• Let us watch out for one another and provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together (v24-25)

Is Eric about to bash “church online?” Is that what this is about? No, I am all for using the tools of the day to place the message of Christ in the context of the culture and people are increasingly online so we must place the message there. Just as believers used the printing press, television, and radio, we should use the tools of the day to place the message where people are. The New Testament was written in Koine Greek, not classical Greek. It was placed “on the street” level of language and not above where people lived. But as we share the message, we must hold tightly to the communal nature of our faith, challenge people to be in community, and provide opportunities for them to do so. We must not equate isolated consumption with church.

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Tags: Bowling Alone, Community, Consumerism, Eric Geiger

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6 Ways to Maximize Your Budgeting Process

by: Eric Geiger

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Some people believe a budgeting process is a waste of time. I don’t mean the people who have a visceral reaction to budgets and strategy, but there are prudent and wise leaders who view a long budgeting process as bad stewardship. They say things like:

We don’t even know how this year will end.

“We are using this year as a starter for next year, and this year’s story is still being written” is not an unwise or untrue statement.

My budget is irrelevant the first day.

Because things are changing, this is true. Budgets are based on a forecast of the future, and financial forecasters even articulate that the first rule of forecasting is that they are wrong. So why in the world would one invest inordinate amounts of time in a budgeting process?

I agree with their sentiment. A long and complex budgeting process with layers and layers of meetings and communication is overdone and a waste of important time. But before you go overboard with that statement, understand that I am not willing to abandon the budgeting process all together. Instead, I would rather maximize it, make it fruitful, and ensure it is helpful to the team. Here are some thoughts on how not to waste your budgeting process:

1. Start with mission and strategy.

Jack Welch declared that strategy is merely resource allocation, meaning a budget is really a reflection of your strategy. It shows what you value and where you are putting emphasis and focus. Connect any strategic planning you do to your budgeting process. Disconnecting strategic planning from budget planning is not wise. Make budgeting about strategy, not finances.

2. Identify the biggest opportunities for growth and impact.

As you plan, look for the biggest opportunities for growth. Set goals in connection with those opportunities, and plan to finance the biggest opportunities generously.

3. Find waste and re-invest it.

If you and the team have gotten stronger, there is always new waste to pull out of the spending. If you use the budgeting time to uncover expenses that could be better used elsewhere, you are often able to finance the big opportunities. Budgeting lesson: Take funds from what is less fruitful to fund what could be more fruitful. To do that, you must read the next item:

4. Don’t straight-line.

A common mistake in budgeting is to take what you are currently spending in a category and project that for the next year (called straight-lining). Basically, current expenses are copied and pasted as next year’s expenses. But there may be some unwise spending and waste within the category. If you straight-line, you may be straight-lining bad stewardship.

5. Use the time to learn and re-learn.

I learn something new every budgeting cycle. Because people are focused on the type of questions that budgeting raises, the conversations are quick and helpful. Approach budgeting time as a time to learn and re-learn how resources are allocated in light of your strategy.

6. Form a contingency plan.

For the last decade, I have used budgeting to form growth plans. But I have also learned to use that time, the time when everyone is looking deeply into the finances, to form a contingency plan. What will we do if we need to cut 10% from our budget? The plans can be high-level and even on just one page, but I would rather think about a challenging scenario before the chaos of the scenario hits. File the plan away and hopefully you will never need it.

> Read more from Eric

Connect with an Auxano Navigator to learn more about a Generosity Culture in your church.

Tags: Budget Process, Eric Geiger, church budget, church budget process

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Your Preaching Will Never Be Enough

by: Eric Geiger

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In his highly popular book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell contrasted the ministry of George Whitefield and John Wesley. Gladwell articulated that Whitefield was the better communicator, a more powerful preacher than Wesley. Whitefield was also known as a more capable theologian than Wesley, more likely to be compared to Luther or Calvin than Wesley would have been. Yet Wesley’s impact was more far-reaching and it was because, according to Malcolm Gladwell, “John Wesley’s genius was organizational.”

Whitefield showed up and preached. He did so well and faithfully. Wesley, though, was committed to more than just the event where he would proclaim the message. He worked hard on developing a process that moved people to “societies” where they would be shepherded in smaller groups. Wesley thought strategically and built a process that became known as Methodism.

In an interview with The Atlantic, Gladwell commented:

One of the things that fascinates me about the rise of Methodism is the role played by John Wesley, the movement’s founder and the one responsible for its extraordinary spread. His travel schedule was phenomenal: he basically spent forty years on a horse, going around and infecting people with the idea of Methodism and then — importantly — creating small groups that kept the infection alive. Wesley’s ability to spend day after day on a horse is central to understanding the spread of Methodism in the nineteenth century. And that in turn is an example of the larger idea that you need to have someone who has some exceptional connecting ability at the center of any epidemic. 

If you preach like Whitefield, consider thinking like Wesley. The more you think like Wesley, the more likely the ministry can spread and endure. What does it mean to think like Wesley?

1. Always think “next step.”

Instead of only thinking about the gathering, John Wesley thought about what people in the gathering would do next, what they would be invited to, and how they would be mobilized to something outside of the gathering. Some questions to consider: When a bunch of people are in one of our gatherings, what do we hope and pray for them next? Are we making what is next clear for them?

2. Always think “smaller group.”

Long before people coined the phrase, “life change best happens in smaller groups,” John Wesley was building a network of them fueled by that very conviction. He knew that people are much more likely to be known when they are in smaller groups.

3. Always think “leader development.”

While getting on a horse and traveling to connect with leaders may have seemed like a waste of time to some, Wesley knew that movements don’t spread without leaders. And he was committed to developing leaders. When spiritual leaders are developed, discipleship is multiplied.

This type of thinking is so counter-intuitive. Most people think about the current moment, the larger environment, and the number of followers. Instead think about the next step, the smaller group, and the number of leaders.

> Read more from Eric.

Tags: Eric Geiger, George Whitefield, Next Steps

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Are You Caring for Your Community or Just Consuming From It?

by: Eric Geiger

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In the summer of 2010, Kaye and I were on vacation in New York City and we attended services at Redeemer Presbyterian church. Before the sermon, a young man stood in front of the congregation and prayed to the Lord on behalf of the whole congregation. He prayed specifically for the city they lived in and he prayed that the Lord would help the church not to “use the city” but to “serve the city,” that they would be a people who would “contribute to the city” and not only “consume from the city.” The language revealed the heart of the church and it was challenging to me. As tourists, we were there in NYC to consume from NYC. We were there to watch plays, eat from great restaurants, and enjoy adventures NYC offers. It was our vacation and not our home, so our consumption was the point of the trip, but the prayer increased my conviction for how I should live in the community the Lord has placed me.

Here are three thoughts on caring for your community and not merely consuming from it.

1. Our posture should be one of caring and not consumption.

The Lord has determined the time and place where we live (Acts 17:26). Of all the times we could be living and all the places of the world we could live, the Lord has placed us right where we are. We are to represent Him as ambassadors of His Kingdom (II Corinthians 5:20) and we are to be salt and light where we live (Matthew 5:13-16). Salt both preserves and adds flavor. Rather than merely consuming from our community, we are to contribute to our community. We are to preserve it and add flavor to it – make it better. Christians should make their workplaces better not worse, their neighborhoods better not worse, and their cities better not worse. As believers in Christ, we must care for our communities not merely consume the good things from them.

2. Caring, not consuming, is what causes us to love where we live.

Living as a tourist in your own community causes you to love what your community offers and not your community itself. When you serve where you live, your heart for where you live will expand. You will find yourself praying for your community more, enjoying your community more, and filled with a greater love for the people around you.

3. Caring for a community does include consuming from it.

The above is not to say we should not consume from our community. In fact, one way we care for our community is to consume from it. Practically speaking, consuming from my community supports the businesses and the leaders in my community. Consuming from my community also helps me and my family enjoy our community, know our community, and speak in relevant way to our community. You can’t learn the language of your community if you don’t consume from it. If you import all your consumption from outside your community via your Prime account, you will miss opportunities to see the beauty of your local community. Enjoying local activities, food, arts, and sports helps you connect with your community. Enjoy the good of your community with an eye on caring for your community. Consuming from your community should be done with a view of caring for the community where the Lord has placed you.

> Read more from Eric.

Tags: Caring Community, Discipleship, Eric Geiger

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