Loving Your Community: Proven Practices for Community-Based Outreach Ministry

Are you and your church making a difference in your community? Too often when churches are presented with a need outside their walls, they operate on the principle of "say no unless you have to say yes." Don't want that to be your church's legacy? Drawing on more than thirty years of service to the community surrounding Faith Church in Indiana, pastor Stephen Viars shows you how to develop a dynamic, giving relationship with your community, one in which your natural response to needs is "Yes! How can we help?" No matter the size, location, demographics, or issues of your community, the approach found in this practical book will help you improve people's lives, draw them into productive conversation about the hope you have in Christ, and glorify God.

Publisher: Baker
Type: Paperback
ISBN: 9780801094781

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Stephen Viars has served as a pastor and biblical counselor at Faith Church and Faith Biblical Counseling Ministries in Lafayette, Indiana, since 1987. A frequent speaker at conferences, colleges, and seminaries, he also serves on the boards of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors, the Biblical Counseling Coalition, Vision of Hope, and the Faith Community Development Corporation. The author of Loving Your Community, he and his wife, Kris, have three children and four grandchildren.

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"If you're tired of running the church like a cruise ship and would love to equip and launch your people back into the community, then get this book and read it with your leaders! For the past two decades I've watched Steve take an already vibrant church that was doing so many things well and help them exit the building, to the glory of God and the great good of the community. By God's grace, Steve and his church family have built effective partnerships with civic leaders, judges, police officers, and social workers that have shattered the categories of what most community leaders think about Christians and the church of Jesus Christ. In a day of bitter polarization here's a strategy for lifting up Jesus and putting feet on the gospel. God, give us more of it!" Brad Bigney, lead pastor of Grace Fellowship Church, ACBC-certified counselor, conference speaker, and author of Gospel Treason