A Resource to Their City

In Titus 3:14 Paul lays out a vision for how churches should conduct themselves: “Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives.” Since their very beginning, Gilbert Church has been considering how to implement this vision in their own town. “Our ultimate goal is to connect our bodies and resources to needs in the Gilbert community,” says Brian Kilmer. “We want to position ourselves so that when the city does have a need they come to us and think of us as people that care about the city and do quality work.”

Over the last few years, Gilbert Church has had the opportunity to help out their city by building fences in community spaces. When Brian and Janet built an addition to their house several years ago, they got to know the Gilbert Park Supervisor, Gary Steel. In 2011 they heard that he needed a new fence to be built around some of the school sport fields. Gilbert Church volunteered to take on the job. Brian says at first the Supervisor was skeptical, having had bad experiences working with volunteer groups in the past. But he let them try it and was very pleased with the work the church did. In 2013, he asked them to build another stretch of fence around the sports fields. This year, Gilbert Church just finished building a new fence around Banford Park.

Brian says they are seeking to work with the local government because it is likely to be aware of needs that are hard for the church to see. “Gilbert is an affluent community,” he says, “and the needs are often difficult to see on the surface. That makes it easy for us to have a strong desire to do good without knowing where to do it.” They are hoping that the local government will come to view them as a resource to use for bettering the city.

On Sunday nights, Gilbert Church has started a discussion about how to position themselves so that they are best able to meet needs when  occasions come. “Doing good is going to take time and resources,” Brian explains. ” It is easy for us to say we want to do good and want to be ready for opportunities, but we need to figure out how to structure our time so that when an occasion arises we can actually step up to it. The question we are considering as a church is this: What do we need to do now to get ready for opportunities we hope will come in the future?