Connecting the Local Church with the Community Through a Service Learning Project: An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of an Endeavour to Increase Gormley Church's Engagement in Community Service and Personal Development

Abstract

This study, using the participatory action research method, has sought to identify the engagement in community service projects for church members in terms of personal development, community engagement and missional awareness. The participants were members of Gormley Church, in southern Ontario, Canada, a 143 years old church that had experienced an increasing disconnect with its surrounding community in terms of acting as an agent of spiritual and social transformation. The participants engaged in practical service in the community for a period of six months. Based on the participants' interests, informal partnerships were formed between the local church and selected organizations that serve the community. Making use of service learning as a tool, the participants were surveyed before, during and after the project, through personal narratives, focus groups and surveys. The goal was to discover any change in how they applied their understanding of their calling as people of God through service opportunities, to measure the adoption or increase of missional habits, and to evaluate the impact of their service in the community. One of the key lessons that emerged throughout this study is that the Christ-centered nature of the church needs to be nurtured by missional habits. Community engagement is the natural environment of a missionally shaped life, which proved to be an efficient way to leverage and accelerate Christ-likeness. The invitation made to follow Jesus in different settings proved that disciple making is benefitted by it being done in the context of community service. The urgency of proclamation and the demonstration of God's Kingdom are better understood through community exposure rather than in a safe discipleship course classroom.