Welcome to the Influence Podcast! I'm George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

"Regardless of your Sunday attendance numbers, your church can become one of the most influential organizations in your city," writes Kevin Foster. "As culture drifts further from the local church, one of the most powerful ways to become relevant again is to engage with the brokenness in the community around you."

In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I talk to Foster about his book, Run to the Brokenness. We discuss the relationship between evangelism and compassion, better metrics for measuring ministry effectiveness, how to operationalize compassion in your congregation, and much more.

Kevin Foster is the founding pastor of LifeBridge Community Church in Fresno, Calif., and author of Run to the Brokenness: How Your Church Can Be the Center of Your Community, published by Avail.

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Show Notes

• 00:00 — Introduction and Sponsor Ad
• 01:53 — What does "Run to the brokenness mean," and what was the impetus for this concept in your life and ministry?
• 09:06 — Why do we need to do redefine success in the local church? And what are better metrics for measuring success?
• 11:48 — Different communities have different needs, so how does a church identify points of brokenness in its community?
• 16:19 — How do you address the brokenness within a church? And how do you operationalize your ministry to those points of brokenness?
• 22:20 — How do you respond to these three objections: (1) My church isn't big enough to do this. (2) As a pastor, I don't have enough capacity. (3) We don't have enough money.
• 24:31 — How do we create the culture that wants to address the points of pain and need in a community?
• 30:20 How do you keep evangelism and compassion together?
• 33:28 — What are you reading right now that is interesting, helpful, and/or personally challenging?
• 34:43 — Conclusion