Last week I had the chance to meet with Pastor Neil Horner of Duneland Community Church. He generously offered to buy me lunch even though we hadn’t met before. We had a great conversation and I picked up on a few significant things:
- He is passionate about seeing the community impacted for the better.
- He wants to see the community impacted by the churches and not just by his church. He really has a passion to see all the churches in the area working together so well that any pastor would be eager to send a visitor to a different church if another one might be more effective for that person.
It was great talking to him because those are my dreams as well! I really want to see a region impacted by the churches operating in unity with each other.
I asked him directly if he thought there were enough churches in the area already to accomplish that and to reach all the people. He said, frankly, that there were, but that I had asked the wrong question. “It’s not about whether there are enough churches to reach these people. It’s a question of whether or not they will.” I was completely impressed by his answer and his eagerness to open the door of the community to another new church if the purpose of the new church was to reach out and make a positive impact on the region for the cause of Christ.
It was a really encouraging meeting because he is a friendly guy and I think it would be really fun to get to know him better and to get to work with him in ministry.