On October 17, 2010, a small group of like-minded, like-hearted people met together in a church conference room to dialog on the needs of the Parma area community.  It was there, in fact, on a Sunday afternoon, that Community Ambassadors was born.

 

I will never forget the energy and zeal that permeated around the table that day.  All the right elements seemed to be present. Focus. Unity.  Passion. Vision. Peanut M&M’s.  There was such an excitement and eagerness to formulate an action plan.  We could hardly wait to roll up our sleeves and just start making a difference in our community.  There seemed to be just one problem…. We weren’t quite sure where to start.

 

On the walls surrounding the conference table hung large, white sheets of paper.  At the top of one sheet, I wrote, “Needs.”  My plan was for us to spend 15-20 minutes discussing what we thought were the most pressing challenges in our community.  So I posed the question to the group, “What are the needs of our community?”  Almost immediately the suggestions started coming.  One person blurted out, “Food Pantry!”  With black Sharpie in hand, I wrote it down on the large sheet of paper.  Another said, “Visit the homeless at the shelter.”  I wrote it down.  Another mentioned something about a clothing drive.  Again, I wrote it down.

 

Then it dawned on me. I stopped writing and said, “Guys, wait…. Does Parma even have a homeless shelter? And doesn’t the church down the street already have a large food pantry ministry in place.”  Sure the suggestions were noble and, certainly, we could still be involved in these missional endeavors or assist other local groups with their projects, but the reality was, in all of our desire to make a difference in the community, we didn’t even know “our” community.  We were simply guessing.

 

Of course, the discussion didn’t just end there.  Once we realized how disconnected we really were, we decided that our first step should be to educate ourselves.  While some of the needs we were raising reflected real issues, like homelessness, they weren’t necessarily ones that we knew were present within our community.  Nevertheless, we knew that there were opportunities to serve somewhere.  Perhaps they were not as glaringly obvious as seeing someone on the side of the road without shoes or food, but there were, indeed, still needs that surrounded us.

 

Our first order of business that day, then, was not to launch new programs or  projects, but rather to simply begin researching our neighborhoods, attending school board and city council meetings, meeting with the mayor(s), joining other local groups to seek ways of collaborating efforts, etc. It was time to stop guessing and presuming, really, and start actually engaging the community like we were serious and intentional about truly making a difference.  We also needed to seek the Lord diligently for wisdom and clarity as we proceeded through this process so that we did not begin offhandedly distributing Kingdom resources in an attempt to merely busy ourselves or address issues that we presumed were legitimate in our own minds.

 

As the Holy Spirit quickened me that day in our meeting, it is my prayer today that the Lord would again breathe on our churches in the community.  Lord, give us wisdom and insight to know where and how to carry out the community-focused ministries You have called us to.  Give us the boldness and courage to step out of our comfort zone, yet save us from our own zealous ambition that can distract us from what You have actually called us to do.  Above all, help us to be effective in our endeavors to glorify You and share the Gospel with others.

 

For any local pastor or church leader that is desiring resources and to get more connected within the community, I encourage you to contact us.  We are here to assist you, as well as pray with you.  We can be reached by email at contact@comamb.org or by phone at 216-200-7030.