Producing City
Changers
By Alan Platt
When we at Doxa Deo received the
word from God that He had entrusted
us with the faith for a city, believing it
could be transformed by His glory—
indeed, that what He wanted on Earth
was for all “Babylon” to be transformed
by His glory—we knew we couldn’t look
at the members of our church (or any
church) in the same way.
We realized that our people aren’t
coming to church to be blessed by a
program.
People are the program.
I love this quote from Irenaeus, an
early church father: “The glory of God
is man fully alive.” That’s what church
members must be if we are to transform
Babylon. We don’t refer to our church
members as members anymore. We call
them partners. Partners of a dream. We
see them as city changers, as people
30 • Solutions
who have an anointing on their lives
to take the presence of Christ into our
cities.
And now as leaders, we see ourselves
empowering them for their calling. They
step outside the church to engage their
world as the extension of the church
they belong to. They engage their
everyday world as people fulfilling our
church’s mission in whatever they do.
Now the church is in action all over the
city every day, all the time.
If they happen to be teachers, for
example, they now engage their
classrooms, ministering to people
as they relate the love and goodness
of God in that space. They bring His
presence into those classrooms, and
that becomes the extended program of
the church. Whatever transpires there,
we want to celebrate when the church
gathers together. We create space in