City Impact Roundtable Reflections
                                                                              El Paso, TX 
                                                                                               March, 2005

The City Impact Roundtable in El Paso went very well. Some think as many as 100 showed up. (I know of one businessperson who waited 20 minutes for a parking space and another key business person left due to lack of parking).

We will have a convening team meeting next week to pray and evaluate the meeting, which I would definitely call the most successful to date. I am thrilled with what the Lord is doing. The mix of believers who came was excellent, and we heard many comments of what a great meeting overall we had. God was with us! Many of those who attended were there for the first time. Many indicated that there was a real need for this type of meeting. Believers know when something is of the Lord, and the ones we talked to seemed grateful for the gathering. (I was told our Christian Sheriff had to leave early for a funeral, but he didn't seem to want to leave).

I think what we will do in the future is continue to have panels from different sectors to inspire and inform us, and also have table talk as well. The panels seem to draw people too. The overall mission of our CIR is to pray, share and care with regards to Loving Our Communities to Christ. We are still in the early stages of holding CIR’s in our area. But after doing this meeting, it seems to me that we should continue to start the CIR with a panel discussion with a few believers from a particular sector in the community. Our panel of three only took about 45 minutes.

When you highlight a sector two things happen. One, you draw others from that same sphere of influence who come to add to, learn from or support what their counterparts are doing. Two, it attracts others with a heart for their community to hear what God is doing within the community. It was very enlightening to hear reports from those who are working with or in Law Enforcement in our region (our focus in March) and connecting Christians to real life in the city.

Later on when you have your table discussions, you can move forward from what was shared. The panel creates an environment that encourages others to share at the tables what God has put on their hearts. Our CIR met for only two hours, but it was important to pray and share around the tables to build relationships. At the conclusion, each table gave a summary of what was shared, and what we saw was that each highlighted a ministry they didn't know existed.

I believe these meetings will continue to grow as well as bring back others who have attended in the past. As one convening team member shared, the church must come together to be one voice to bring change in the community. By the way, one convening team member who works closely with Dick Eastman's Every Home for Christ has sent the notes from the first roundtable to them so that EHFC can look at doing a roundtable at their upcoming meeting Plus, I heard today that the Hispanic pastors who either lead or have led ministerial alliances from the El Paso-Juarez region had lunch together yesterday. I feel that is fruit from our CIRs and Border Summits, though they may not know it. This is a first for this particular group, (as far as I know). PTL!

Submitted to NPPN News by Barney Field
http://members.aol.com/epfj/