Pastor Bill Dornbush credits Rick Warren’s “40 Days of Community” curriculum for sparking the growth in his congregation’s small groups. The church decided to make “40 Days of Community,” a follow-up to Warren’s successful “40 Days of Purpose” program (which featured the Saddleback Church pastor’s bestseller “The Purpose Driven Life”), a centerpiece of its fall program. The new curriculum focuses on church outreach, rather than individual spiritual growth.
Several other Covenant churches have used the “40 Days of Community” program. Steve Eng, pastor of the Evangelical Covenant Church in Alexandria, Minnesota, says that 30 groups from his church became in community service as a result of the program.
One group is assisting family members of 95 National Guardsmen recently sent to Iraq, two groups have worked on a Habitat for Humanity home, while another group helped a missionary with a bad back pack eight boxes of medical supplies for eye surgery in Sierra Leone.
“When we talked about the needs in our community, we were overwhelmed with the need for help,” Karen Hurlburt of the Alexandria Covenant church says.
Dornbush says a divine appointment led to one group in St. Cloud to make “prayer blankets” for 160 residents of a local nursing home. An 87-year-old woman at the home had been praying that such blankets – which can be used to help remind people to pray – would be available to the residents and mentioned the idea to a chaplain. One week later, the leader of the small group called the nursing home and asked if there was anything they could do to help.
“It meant a lot to the group to know they were an answer to prayer,” says Dornbush.
Dornbush says the program has begun to impact the future of his congregation, including a stronger focus on small groups.
“I think in a sense that is going to become the heart of our ministry,” says Dornbush. Since recently completing the seven-week program, the church already has hired a small groups coordinator.
“The people actually pushed the issue,” says Dornbush. “That was a positive thing – that it came from the people and not the leadership.”
Church members have felt freer to share their faith and have become more involved in day-to-day ministry, Dornbush says. He relates the story of a couple from the church that was traveling in Missouri and ran into a neighbor who was traveling there as well.
The church members told their friend about their new small group, and invited him to come. The neighbor had never attended church before, but has started coming regularly to Hope, Dornbush says.
He adds that the new program has help members of his congregation grow closer together while they also reach out to their neighbors.
“The meaning of community has changed for them,” Dornbush says, adding that many new relationships have formed and the existing ones strengthened.
The benefits have not come without a lot of work. The St. Cloud church started the program September 25 and ended November 6, but pre-planning began in July, Dornbush says. That preparatory work included training small group hosts, and coordinating drama and special music that reinforced the “40 Days of Community” program. A community director was needed to help develop ideas for projects. A campaign director also was needed to oversee all the preparations.
Dornbush says all the work was worth the change in the church that has taken place.
Copyright © 2011 The Evangelical Covenant Church.
