JT: Peter Wagner, John Dawson, Robert Lewis and Jack Dennison have captured a lot of the principles of city reaching/community transformation. Eric Swanson's writings with Leadership Network on the Externally Focused Church have been instructive as well. John Perkins and the Christian Community Development Association have also had a profound impact upon my thinking.
NPPN: What is the easiest mistake to make when asking leaders to work together?
JT: Not giving them something to do, something to focus on, a hill to take. Leaders are wired for action. Prayer and fellowship are not motivators for leaders. They see prayer as a means to an end and fellowship as a by-product of taking a hill together.
NPPN: Where is the community most open to collaborating with the Church?
JT: In the suburbs I see believers who want to meet the basic needs of under-resourced neighborhoods with food, shelter, and basic services. In urban areas missionally oriented believers want to partner with schools—helping to provide a safe and quality education for our children.
NPPN: When is a community ready for transformation?
JT: When the local "anchor pastors" embrace the unity of the Body of Christ and take ownership as the spiritual gatekeepers of their community, then the community becomes poised for real transformation. It begins with local pastors, but must move beyond them and engage the masses who are sitting in the pews to participate in that transformation on a practical level. Sustained community transformation will not happen without mobilizing believers in the marketplace, ministries and organizations already existing in the community. The pastors cast the vision and empower the people. The people get the job done.
NPPN: Why are mega-church pastors so rarely involved in these kinds of efforts?
JT: All pastors have to resist the tendency to think their church is the center of the universe. The larger the church, the easier it is to become consumed with the needs of the congregation to the neglect of the larger community beyond the walls. City reaching efforts will not be sustainable and successful without the engaged leadership of the "anchor pastors" which should include the local mega-church pastors.
