Getting Involved in the Neighborhood (G.A.I.N.)

We began praying about 9 months ago that God would open a door into the Phoenix City Government and a few short weeks later I received a call from our city councilman's office requesting space at our church for a Coffee Talk with the neighborhood. (This is a town hall meeting held in the morning.) We thought that this might be a good start, so we went for it.



Representatives for numerous city departments attended to be a resource and answer questions on specific issues along with our city councilman Greg Stanton. One of those representatives was Community Action Officer Monte Woods from the Phoenix P.D. Monte works with the neighborhood associations on various "crime suppression" initiatives and helps resolve conflict and diffuse tension in the community.

Monte and I hit it off immediately (he's a strong man of faith) and after a few weeks he suggested that we host a G.A.I.N. (Getting Arizonans Involved in Neighborhoods) event sponsored by the Police Department. (Think big block party of multiple neighborhood associations with vendors and city departments distributing information on all sorts of stuff.)



About 100 people attended including the Chief of Police and his chain of command and two city councilmen and their staff. We had the opportunity to get face time with all these folks and explain to them our desire become willing partners on issues we have in common. They were pleasantly surprised of our desire to get involved and encouraged us to continue to work with them. We also got a lot of face time with the leaders of the neighborhood associations around our church who work in conjunction with the Police Department to make the city safer.

Who knows where all this will lead, but we now have about 20 solid contacts to nurture over the coming months and we are well on our way of solidifying a relationship with the Phoenix P.D. We are hopeful that these relationships will bear fruit and begin to draw the people of our neighborhoods around the church into a closer relationship with Christ.

By hosting the event like this we also gained advertising that you just can't buy as we raised awareness of who we are and what we stand for. We had several fruitful "God" conversations with exploring or hurting souls. Others asked many questions about our church, service times, etc.

We are hopeful that this event will springboard us into deeper relationships with all we met as we penetrate the city and work to transform it for Christ.