{"id":531,"date":"2010-06-24T20:15:20","date_gmt":"2010-06-24T20:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briandoddonleadership.wordpress.com\/?p=531"},"modified":"2010-06-24T20:15:20","modified_gmt":"2010-06-24T20:15:20","slug":"how-a-church-changes-a-community-thoughts-from-mike-linch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/2010\/06\/24\/how-a-church-changes-a-community-thoughts-from-mike-linch\/","title":{"rendered":"How A Church Changes A Community: Thoughts From Mike Linch of NorthStar Church"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"Mike Linch\" href=\"http:\/\/mikelinch.wordpress.com\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Mike Linch <\/a>is the Senior Pastor of the great <a title=\"NorthStar Church\" href=\"http:\/\/www.northstarchurch.org\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">NorthStar Church <\/a>in Kennesaw, GA.\u00c2\u00a0 Since its inception in 1997, <strong>NorthStar’s intent was not to grow a church but rather to reach a city<\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0 With over 2,000 in weekly attendance, a backlog of volunteers, and literally doing some form of ministry that impacts the\u00c2\u00a0community\u00c2\u00a0365 days per year, the cities of Acworth and Kennesaw are better places to live because of this loving church.<\/p>\n<p>Understanding <strong>churches across the country are\u00c2\u00a0sensing\u00c2\u00a0a deeper need\u00c2\u00a0to impact the\u00c2\u00a0under-resourced and marginalized in their cities<\/strong>, I recently asked Mike what three things every church leader should know as they attempt to transform their communities.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Love The Things They Love<\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0 What is your city’s culture?\u00c2\u00a0 What are the needs\u00c2\u00a0of your local school boards and teachers?\u00c2\u00a0 What is on the hearts of your civic leaders?\u00c2\u00a0 What does your city celebrate? Mike points out that by loving the things your city loves,\u00c2\u00a0you build rapport.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<strong>Rapport\u00c2\u00a0then allows you\u00c2\u00a0to build the bridges needed to impact the local culture.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Become Part Of The Fabric Of\u00c2\u00a0The Community, Not\u00c2\u00a0Just Part\u00c2\u00a0Of\u00c2\u00a0The Community.<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0 <strong>Don’t compete with your city.<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0 If\u00c2\u00a0your city has an upcoming July 4th celebration, don’t put on one yourself as a church.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather incorporate your efforts into the city’s.\u00c2\u00a0 This principal works the same for holidays, county fairs, sporting events, etc…\u00c2\u00a0 By incorporating your church into the life of city, you can then\u00c2\u00a0be seamlessly\u00c2\u00a0woven into its non-competitive fabric.<\/li>\n<li><strong>You Must Feel Called To\u00c2\u00a0That City.<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0 As Mike talked about this principle, I felt challenged.\u00c2\u00a0 Many church planters select a city because of demographics, population growth, or denominational intentionality.\u00c2\u00a0 You will never change a community with this approach.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>I am honored to call Mike one of my dearest friends.\u00c2\u00a0 Every person is unique and I think <strong>Mike’s uniqueness is his kindness<\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0 He loves Acworth and Kennesaw.\u00c2\u00a0 He loves the teachers, police officers, elected officials, sports teams, business leaders, and his neighbors…just to name a few.\u00c2\u00a0 Since coming into\u00c2\u00a0our area\u00c2\u00a0after graduating from Liberty University, a person with Mike’s\u00c2\u00a0obvious giftedness will\u00c2\u00a0get a variety of offers.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s never left however…he\u00c2\u00a0loves our city.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you Mike.<\/p>\n<p>Church leader,\u00c2\u00a0do you know what your city loves and feel the same way about those things?\u00c2\u00a0 Do you compete with your city?\u00c2\u00a0 And most importantly, how deep is your calling and\u00c2\u00a0love for\u00c2\u00a0your city?\u00c2\u00a0 I hope you incorporate Mike’s thoughts and your church becomes everything God wants it to be.\u00c2\u00a0 Hey, we’re all in this together.\u00c2\u00a0 Tell us things your church is doing\u00c2\u00a0that’s having a huge impact in\u00c2\u00a0your community.\u00c2\u00a0 Let’s learn from each other.<\/p>\n<p>To continue receiving leadership insights, please click <a title=\"RSS Feed\" href=\"http:\/\/briandoddonleadership.wordpress.com\/feed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mike Linch is the Senior Pastor of the great NorthStar Church in Kennesaw, GA.\u00c2\u00a0 Since its inception in 1997, NorthStar’s intent was not to grow a church but rather to reach a city.\u00c2\u00a0 With over 2,000 in weekly attendance, a backlog of volunteers, and literally doing some form of ministry that impacts the\u00c2\u00a0community\u00c2\u00a0365 days per […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","iawp_total_views":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,18],"tags":[26,98,112,195,243,251,258,259,346,402,486],"class_list":["post-531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-leadership","category-relationships","tag-acworth","tag-churches","tag-community","tag-god","tag-jesus","tag-kennesaw","tag-leaders","tag-leadership","tag-pastors","tag-service","tag-volunteer"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}