An old, established church stands at the intersection of two busy streets. Around the corner was a popular restaurant. One Sunday, a retired pastor and member of the congregation preached a sermon at the church.

“If both this church and the restaurant burned down, which one would the neighbourhood miss more?” she asked. The congregation stirred, and voices murmured in the sanctuary. “Well, which one?” the preacher repeated. Grudgingly, the congregation responded:” The restaurant”.

How many other congregations would answer in the same way? Church buildings and what goes on inside of them may be important to the families who belong there.

Our buildings, our programmes, our ministry and our activities are important for the church members and their families but seem to offer little to their wider community.

The retired preacher was reminding us that we are a people of mission. We are called and set apart so as we can be sent-not just as individuals but as a community of faith.

A helpful metaphor to guide the church in this is Jesus’ challenge to us to be the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13). The image reminds us that our whole life as a church should make a difference in the community.  

Jesus points out that if the salt loses its saltines “it is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled underfoot.”

If the church has nothing to offer to the community around it, few would grieve if it disappeared.

If we step outside the church and ask others what is important about the church in the community, it is unlikely they would quote Jesus’ words about being the salt of the earth.

They would speak of wanting the church to be useful, to make a difference, and to help build up the community. In other words, they would like the church to be a community asset.

Promoting asset-based community development is a way of building communities based on what people have, rather than on their problems and needs. 

By starting with the assets in the community, we are likely to avoid the problems of dependency and despondency associated with an outsider–led development.

Therefore, the local religious institutions, such as the church are the key assets in the community. Churches have many resources that can contribute directly to building up communities, and church leaders must realise that the visibility of the church depends upon the viability of the community. 

Some of the resources the church can contribute to the community’s basket of assets include personnel, space and facilities, materials and equipment, expertise, rituals and symbols, moral authority – and, of course, spending power.

But a church that wants to be “the salt of the earth” needs to be linked to other resource centres in the community.  

Mutually beneficial partnerships with other organisations, associations, institutions and individuals are necessary to turn the church’s resources into community assets.

 This is as easy as it sounds. Churches are often suspicious of any partnerships. Also, they tend to be concerned with the good of the church or denomination rather than with the good of the community.

Many churches cannot even cooperate with other churches, let alone other organisations in the community.  

Yet there is no other way.  

If we want to contribute our resources to the other assets of the community, we have to learn to be the church outside the church.

The idea of the church as a community asset has its limitations. Our obedience is to Christ as head of the church alone, rather than the community. Yet the church must not forget that Christ calls us to be the salt of the earth so that the church rather than the restaurant would be most missed if both disappeared.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a young, German theologian who was hanged by the Nazis for his role in a conspiracy against Hitler.

While in prison, Bonhoeffer wrote in his now-famous ‘Letters’: ‘The church is the church only when it exists for others.

The church must share in the secular problems of ordinary human life, not dominating but helping and serving’ (Letters and Papers from Prison, pp.382-383). This may be the time for us to think about the purpose of church, individually, and collectively.

God is still speaking! 

*Reverend Jan A Scholtz is the former chairperson of //Kharas Regional Council and former !Nami#nus councillor and is a holder of a Diploma in Theology, B-Theo (SA), a Diploma in Youth Work and Development from the University of Zambia (UNZA), a Diploma in Education III (KOK) BA (HED) from UNISA.