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go ahead, impact your community

"And the master said to the slave, 'Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled.

We walked into the gym at the Dream Center Saturday morning just about 10am.  It was packed.  There were people all walks of life.  Some were volunteers from Angelus Temple, some were from the Dream Center Discipleship program, some of us were from mission teams, some were students from Pepperdine University and another college too. The place was electric.  You couldn't hardly hear.

For the next 15 minutes a guy named Jonathan pumped us up.  We were split into many teams to go out into the city for what most likely is my favorite ministry piece we have been part of here at the Dream Center in the past week.  It is Adopt-A-Block.  

This ministry goes every Saturday into the same neighborhoods all across Los Angeles and ministers to families.  The next day buses come to pick up people from church.  What happens at those ministry sites is pretty simple.  Food is given out.  People are prayed for.  Encouragement is freely given.  After time lives have been changed.  Big change in many many lives.

The point is be consistent.  Don't just walk into a neighborhood or community and think that over night you will see success.  Go again and again and then again into those communities and love on people.  Lives will be changed when they see your love for Jesus and that you mean it when you say you care.

Does that make sense?  Then do it.  Go ahead.  Impact your community for Jesus one block or one house or best yet one person at a time.  Matthew Barnett says, "the person who shows up the most in someone's life will win the battle of influence."  

To the church we need to hear a bit more.  Matthew has also said, "whoever wins the people that nobody wants will get the people that every body wants."

Lets touch lives for Jesus.  I am going to shout this more in the coming days than ever better, and I have been shouting.  I have been leading.  But it is time to take it to the next level.  Church does happen in our buildings, but the church is at its best out in the highways and byways, in the communities and neighborhoods serving people and sharing Jesus.  Go ahead, impact your community.  It will change you first.  Then it will change countless lives around you.

Who is going to win the battle of influence in the neighborhoods are your church and in your community?  For us in Collinsville and Henry County, Virginia, I will answer.  It is JESUS.  Nothing else.

Go ahead, impact your community!

They share freely and give generously to those in need.  Their good deeds will be remembered forever.  They will have influence and honor.

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