One Nation Under God. Here's Franklin Graham. I'm inviting you to join with us and to pray for America. Pray that we, as individuals and as a nation, turn to the God of our fathers, the God of the Bible. As we approach America's 250th, join Franklin in praying for our nation every day.
A new prayer is posted daily at one nationundergod.com. Invite your friends and family to pray to one nationundergod.com. Uh Life audio. Yeah. Hi from the Salvation Army and you're listening to Words of Life.
These are the words, these are the words of life. These are the words, these are the words, these are the words of life. Hey, welcome back to Words of Life. Throughout this series, we've been focused on encouraging Christians to be even more engaged with their literal neighbors and their communities as a whole. But we wanted to wrap up this series with some encouragement to those listening who are part of church leadership.
We are joined by Major Paul Ryerson, Area Commander for the Salvation Army's Arkansas and Oklahoma Division. In this position, he is a pastor to pastors.
So, especially if that's you, we pray this episode is a blessing and an encouragement. Major Irison, introduce yourself to our listeners. I'm Major Paul Ryerson and I am the area commander in central Oklahoma, which is in the Oklahoma City area. And so what what does your current role day to day look like? My current day-to-day right now is really being a shepherd to shepherds.
We have several local churches, what we call CORE, and that have pastors and officers located there. And then I'm their kind of their shepherd, resourcing them, helping them, and getting them what they need in order to perform our mission on a daily basis.
So I hope my world is primarily right now. Fundraising, community engagement, board engagement, these sorts of things.
So that way we can resource the mission. We're currently in a series focused on conversations about how Christ followers should be the best neighbors. And now, when it comes to church leadership, what does that mean to you?
Well, I think church leadership is the ones who are steering the boat and casting a vision and really rallying everybody together to say, hey, this is the direction we're going.
So if the church leader has an outward community focused mind, then that will bleed into the four walls and into the congregation. The church is meant to be a part of the ecosystem of its local community. Um If we're speaking to other pastors out there, how can we ensure that the services we offer, the programs we provide, are ones that the community actually needs? This is such an important question. Because oftentimes, and I've been guilty of this, and many churches are guilty of this.
is that we try to find that answer based on what we think. And not what we actually. know or have data for you know we get in rooms and churches our church boards And we try to figure out, let's start a new program, let's start a new thing. Oftentimes, if we don't really go and ask the community, or if we're not already plugged into the community where the needs are being displayed, then what's gonna come out of that meeting is really probably some of our passions, some of the things that we want to serve the community, which there's nothing wrong with that. But we may realize that there's probably 15 other people doing the same thing.
And that it's not even an identified need within the community.
So, to get engaged, Joining, or maybe the pastor of the church joins the local civic club, the Rotary Club, or becomes a part of the Chamber of Commerce, joins a local leadership program, and you join those groups there. Just being in that environment showcases. What the community is saying, here are our needs, here are our gaps. Here are the needs. And then as a pastor, you can sit in that position and go, we can do that.
And it's based on actual hard data and you hearing it directly from your community. Hey, you're listening to the Salvation Army's Words of Life. We're gonna take a quick ad break and we'll be right back. One nation under God. Here's Franklin Graham.
I'm inviting you to join with us and to pray for America. Pray that we, as individuals and as a nation, turn to the God of our fathers, the God of the Bible. As we approach America's 250th, join Franklin in praying for our nation every day. A new prayer is posted daily at one nationundergod.com. Invite your friends and family to pray to one nationundergod.com.
When you do step into a new community as part of church leadership, what are some of the first steps that you would encourage people to take toward meaningful engagement? For me, I'll just talk personal note. My first steps, number one, is always gonna be to meet with my senior church leadership. And I wanna spend some one-on-one time with them. I wanna hear their stories.
I wanna hear how they got connected to the church. I wanna hear how long their passion.
So, for me, coming right into it, I wanna do that in the first 30 days. I wanna meet with all my senior church leadership. Also, I want to get a sense of what is the mission and the values of this actual church. What have we identified? Do we have a vision statement?
Where are we going? And if there is something laid out, then I don't want to. Redo everything, I want to be a part of what already you've identified as this is this church's passion, this is where we're going. And in the event where if there isn't one, then you know, as a pastor, I know.
Okay, well that there there's an element that we can kind of start leaning on. My next thing is, I want to look outside the four walls of the church. Within the first 14 days, I joined my local Rotary Club. And that's a civic organization. Here in Oklahoma City.
I moved last summer. By the second week, I was attending the meetings and then I became a member of the club. And if that's something you've never done before, I encourage you to really do that. There is no quicker way. To meet your community, to see who the movers and the shakers are, the decision makers, some elected officials down to business leaders and all that.
But every single week, when those guys are meeting and you're in that room, They're discussing and they're saying, here are the needs. We're going to celebrate our wins as a community, and then we're going to identify what our needs are. And there's no better space for a man or a woman of the Lord to be in that environment to say, we can be a part of that. After that, I do tend to look for Ways to engage with our local Chamber of Commerce, looking at other avenues as well, such as the community leadership programs. For me, in my context as a Salvation Army Officer, I want to get this uniform.
staying and accessible. to the community.
So, I want to be accessible. I want to go where everyone else is already hanging out.
Now, I don't want them to try to win them over to say, Come over here and see me, or come in. It's like there's too many barriers to get someone to come into your building. Go where they're already hanging out and then learn what they're all doing and what they need. It's never felt. And in the first I mean, I've been here less than a year.
And already have seen fruit. Forward motion progress here in Oklahoma City, the needs being identified and starting to be met. just by doing those simple things. I love that. We pray that you're enjoying and being blessed by this conversation.
We're going to take one more ad break and we'll be right back. One nation under God. Here's Franklin Graham. I'm inviting you to join with us and to pray for America. Pray that we, as individuals and as a nation, turn to the God of our fathers, the God of the Bible.
As we approach America's 250th, join Franklin in praying for our nation every day. A new prayer is posted daily at one nationundergod.com. Invite your friends and family to pray to one nationundergod.com. What are some examples you've seen as a Corps officer of a local church of wins of just seeing a Corps truly meet needs in a unique way? Yeah.
Well, here's one real example that I can think of. This is when I was stationed in Gwinnett County, it's outside of Atlanta. And while we were there in the context of the Salvation Army, we have a church board, and then we have this community advisory board, which is made up of community business leaders that wanna come and help. the mission of the Salvation Army. And in Guanette, we spent a lot of time.
on getting these two bodies if you will Together and in union, and in one common purpose and mission. And one of the things that came out of that. Was we had a disaster emergency mobile kitchen in our parking lot there that was used for. You know, if a hurricane or a tornado will mobilize and we'll go feed first responders and these sorts of things. But when it's not being deployed, you know, we maintenance it, but it was just kind of sitting in our parking lot.
So they collectively said, hey, we should start this mobile feeding program where we go out and we feed, we identify local communities.
Well, the first question was: well, where do we go? Where do we send the truck? Where do we feed people? Do we just randomly show up in communities and knock on doors and say, Do you need something to eat? And actually, I was sitting in the room and I said, you know, when I went through Leadership Gwinnett, that's the community engagement program I went through.
One of my homework assignments when I went to that program was I had to do a five-hour ride along with a Gwinnett County police officer. And so I, for five hours, I sat in his cruiser. We went and went through his precinct and we went around and this and that. I mean, it was like a whole thing. But when we were sitting in that room and they said, where should we go?
The first thought that came to my mind was. Oh, I bet you I know who would know. Let me contact that officer that I rode with. And this guy patrols the streets, he knows exactly where they need.
So I contacted him. And he went. Yeah, he gave me a full look. Here's where our most calls are. Here's where this is.
Here's where I spend. Here's where, I mean, he just let, he knew the lay of the land. And he presented that to us. And that's when we said, that's where we'll send the truck. And so we started going out there.
and the local county like in fact Gwinnett County Police started going with us. Serving off the truck. And so now we had uniform officers serving off the truck food, had the Salvation Army out there, volunteers out there, and it just became this beautiful thing. And I'll finish with this. One of the neat moments was when one of the detectives from Gwinnett County Police.
We pulled into an area that they identified. And just in short conversation, he just kind of said. Hey, you'll notice there's a lot of kids coming out at this facility, you know, come in this neighborhood, coming to eat. And I said, yeah. And he told me, he said, You know, none of these kids.
go to school. They're school-aged kids, but they don't go to school. And I said, I mean, just skip and scroll me, why is that, right? And he said, because none of them are vaccinated. And I thought, well, is that by choice?
And they said, no, they just can't get to the facility to get vaccinated, to just get registered to go to school. And so it just so happened that the public health director of Gwinnett County served on my board.
So, after one phone call, I was like, Do you know there's a whole community here that? They want to go to school, they just can't. It's just like a hinder. They can't get there. And so with that, one little knowledge here's the need yeah And here's the way to connect to the, I called the director and they send their mobile unit out, their clinic out to vaccinate the kids so they can get registered for school.
Whoa. We just met a real need.
Now, kids get to be educated. That's an example that comes to mind. That's amazing. Yeah. Oh.
If someone says they don't know where to start as far as being more engaged with their community, what's just another piece of advice that you would give them? My number one advice. is it's not too late. It's not too late. You know, if you don't know what to do.
Then look toward either other churches or maybe mentors in your life or people that you see going, man, that. Look, you know, how are they doing? How are they? And reach out and just, you know, ask for a coach, asking for advice. I mean, gosh.
There's so much good that can come from just a humble spirit. And just say, I don't, I want to do this. This is not my wheelhouse. Like, I'm not built for it. Like, my mind doesn't think this way.
What can I do? And so, there's, you're never too late, never too late to start something like this. And really, there's only good that can come from it. Because when you start engaging into your local community, One, there's going to be direct effects and there's going to be byproducts. The direct things are your people in your church are going to feel like they're now legitimately carrying out the mission of the kingdom.
You know, they are, they're not just coming as an audience member on Sunday morning to engage in worship in that way, which is important. But when they feel like when they're actually meeting an identified need in the community, and that is where a local church member starts, their faith becomes real. And as a pastor, there's nothing more than I want than that for you to have a legitimate experience with the Holy Spirit and that your faith is now not this abstract thing, but this is concrete thing in your life. That's for me, boom, that's right there. But then the byproduct of it is the more you're in the community and you're less about yourself and you're more about others.
Funny enough, we think that church growth is about, we have to do a lot of self-promotion and a lot of self-life. Look at our church, look at our programs, look at what we can do, look at this, look at that. But I have found that the best way to grow your church is to quit talking about you and talk about everybody else and just go and serve in the local community. And then from that, your church is gonna grow because it turns out. That's what people actually are interested in.
I've just seen firsthand. Just the church. Spiritually explode.
So that would be my thing. That's great. Uh We hope this series has been an encouragement to you to be more available to your neighbors and more involved in your community. To find any resources mentioned throughout this series, visit wordsoflifepodcast.org. The Salvation Army's mission, doing the most good, means helping people with material and spiritual needs.
You become a part of this mission every time you give to the Salvation Army. Visit SalvationArmyusa.org to offer your support. You can subscribe to Words of Life on your favorite podcast store or visit salvationarmysoundcast.org. Join us next time for the Salvation Army's Words of Life. These are the words, these are the words of life.
These are the words, these are the words, these are the words of life. Thanks so much for listening to Words of Life. We want to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on the show. Visit lifeaudio.com, where you'll find dozens of other faith-centered podcasts in their network. They have shows about prayer, Bible studying, parenting, and more.
Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time. What if the tree that held Jesus could speak? I'm Tim Thibault, and my new book, If the Tree Could Speak, reimagines the Easter story through the lens of the cross itself. My hope is that it inspires fresh hope in the redemption we have through Jesus.
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