At the end of April, Ian had the pleasure of spending the weekend speaking at Genesis Church in Bloomington, Indiana. Speaking with the church leaders on the Saturday and the whole congregation during their Sunday services.

Lead Pastor Timothy Woodcock, gives a summary of the weekend:

What an incredible weekend at Genesis Church with Ian Green!

Several Big Takeaways for Me:

1. Keep the end game at the forefront of our minds – That is the command to Disciple Nations. Yes start with discipling individuals, but how do we transition into discipling communities, cities, spheres of influence that ultimately shape culture.

 A church in the UK that has embraced the transformation message and is making a significant impact in its community is King’s Church, Bolton led by Derek Smith.

It’s mandate is love people, be outward focussed and not church centric, Pastor the community and not just the church. Bolton is a city with a high percentage of low income families and unemployment. With this in mind King’s church has an emphasis of building businesses in order to bring transformation to the city. Job creation is seen as the responsibility of the church and not just the business community. If a person has access to a job, this will increase the ability of the family to be stable and to thrive. For many the journey to employment begins with the person having access to learning new skills. At King’s church they are committed to delivering this training. As Pastor Derek says we are committed to giving people a ‘leg up’ rather than a ‘hand out’.

There are very few people that I have met around the globe who have not only adopted the belief that we are called to Transform Communities but are living it out with commitment and passion. Brian Beatie is the lead Pastor of Freedom House in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. What is happening in that City is nothing short of phenomenal. This article written by Brian will inspire you to believe that this can happen in your community.

‘City transformation wasn’t something that I had always cared about. In fact, I was trying to get out of the largest city in Canada when God called me to commit the rest of my life to the transformation of cities. And… the city that God called us to, was a place where my wife and I had agreed that we would never live. We knew when God called us here, however, that it would be to see transformation that would be a template for other cities around the world.

In my travels I have the tremendous opportunity to meet people who are not only embracing the transformation message but are practically out working it in both the business and political arena. One such man is Tim Schindel. Please read this article by him and be inspired!

Have you ever had God give you a word that was so big, so intimidating, and so audacious you wondered if you were truly hearing things right? I did, and it’s led me on a journey I could have never imagined, praying for, and with, our political leaders and their staff right across Canada. This is only something our God could do, and 15 years ago when I got the call, I was stunned.

Ian Green has been a valued friend of Pais for many years. His passion and wisdom for learning, growing and developing rival many leaders of our generation and his enthusiasm for the Kingdom of God and how we can effectively advance it together brings people out of the shadows and into the light of desiring to be all they were created to be.

When a church truly adopts Community Transformation as its primary focus then how the church is run and the full time positions of the leaders will look quite different.One such church which is seeking to go down this road is Lighthouse in Wollongong, an hour south of Sydney.
It was very interesting to observe close up last month what it means to truly embrace this new model of church.