Expanding the Expedition Through Community Connection
By Dan Pezet
Now Available!
In the introduction to his book, author Dan Pezet asks, "What does successfully connecting with the community look like for a church in these modern days, and how do we get there?"
That is where Expanding the Expedition Through Community Connection is headed. The final answer will look different for each church. But as we journey together through this book, we will lay out common strategies and exercises to help your church improve its connections.
Even though the end of our journey is still off in the distance, if you look up the trail, you might catch a glimpse. Do you see it? Way down at the end of the trail, I see a church that has found its responsible citizenship within its community. I also see a community that acknowledges the church's value for spiritual leadership, and the church values its connection to the community.
That is where we are going. There are some rough parts of the trail to get there, and parts will take some hard work. It is a spiritually fulfilling journey, though, as we seek to fulfill a part of the Greatest Commandment that Jesus gave us and often overlook: love our neighbors. At times, our journey on The Great Expedition can take us down remote and undiscovered paths. This segment of the expedition, though, will end up taking us into the heart of your community.
What Readers are Saying about Expanding the Expedition Through Community Connection:
Drawing on his personal experience in church development, Dan Pezet offers practical guidance for reading your community and your local church, discerning your specific lead role, and connecting your lead role to the needs of your community. Through this process, the local church is recognized as a valuable asset for the community. Connecting with the community brings hope to others and fresh vitality to the localchurch. I highly recommend this book to churches of all sizes and locations.
Bishop R. Lawson Bryan, The United Methodist Church
Churches desperately need to fall in love with their communities again.Dan Pezet provides clear and innovative steps to guidecongregations in discovering their “lead role” for suchengagement. The book is creative, compact, and compelling.
Lovett H. Weems, Jr., Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, DC
As a fruitful and effective church planter, Dan Pezet shares a successfuldiscipleship system generating spiritual leaders who create acommunity of relationships inspired by a passion for new Christian disciples.This work is essential for introducing indispensable tools forcreating community and fulfilling the church's primary mission.
Bishop Paul Leeland, The United Methodist Church
Dan Pezet reminds us through the Community Connection Model that we are calledto serve communities and not just to serve churches. Offering tools like Lectio Vicinitas for Reading Your Community, he pushes church leaders to think outside in vs. inside out by sharing a series of examples of how churches are both leading and supporting the communities in which God has planted.
Phil Schroeder, Senior Pastor, Dunwoody UMC, Atlanta GA