Thoughts on Community Engagement

I've just come back from teaching a course all weekend. It's called Mission Shaped Ministry and is rolled out all over the country. I spent much of the weekend talking about how to engage with your local community and I used lots of examples from SOURCE because that is what I'm doing at the moment. Listening to people with qualifications and experience way beyond mine say that the thought of getting involved in what is happening in their local area really challenged them, made me think.
What is it about the SOURCE Community that makes each individual member want to go out into the Hythe and get involved? Why is it that some will happily go and pick up litter, some will get up early and give away coffee, some will organise the residents FORUM, some will collect TESCO trollies and return them to the store and some will even throw themselves into working with Hythe Forward (www.hytheforward.org.uk)?  I think SOURCE is good at this stuff because we fundamentally care about the Hythe as a place. We want to see it clean and tidy. We want the residents to be happy. We want there to be places for young people to go. We want the long term regeneration of the area to work well. And we will consider doing anything and everything to help the Hythe to be a positive place to live and work in. But I think there is another reason that SOURCE is good at this stuff - I work with some quality people and they understand that if we are to be the local church in the Hythe, people need to know that we will stick our collective neck out for them - and we will! They need to know that we will serve and support them all we can - and we will! They need to know that we will pray our socks off but then get up and get our hands dirty - and we will! In fact we do these things already.

Being prepared to get involved can be a a scary business sometimes. Responding to arson attacks is scary. Watching the regeneration become just more blocks of flats is scary. Collecting a TESCO trolly from the railway tracks just as the gates come down and a train arrives is scary. Watching businesses fail and close down is scary. But being afraid of something should never be a reason not to do it. As the saying goes feel the fear and do it anyway. 

SOURCE is a community of the brave, the willing and let's face it, at times the slightly mad, but being involved in the Hythe is our mission - it's what we do together - it is in our nature as a community of Christians.