Monday Morning Reflections 4/26/10

Yesterday, LifeSpring Church took a RADICAL step in being a different kind of church to share Jesus’ love. Instead of GOING TO church and having a "music-and-message" worship service, we decided to BE the church and serve others. We invited our congregation to come to cook and serve hamburgers, baked beans, and "the fixings" to some special people in our community. Those people were the employees of the Statesboro Police & Fire Departments, the Sheriff’s department, the EMS, the residents of the Summit Apartments, and some random people of Statesboro who lived near the Fire Station. Despite some serious early morning thunderstorms and rain most of the morning, we had 61 volunteers to come and serve over 250 plates and give out 30 Bibles! Here are my observations of the day...

Some signs that LifeSpring is on the right track to share Jesus' love:

• Servants' Hearts
  I was blown away at the way that all the volunteers “jumped in” and helped wherever it was needed. No matter what the task, someone was willing to serve.
• Inclusiveness of All
  It was good to see so many different ages laughing, fellowshipping, & working together. I realized how close our LifeSpring community has become in this last year as there seemed to be less awkwardness in the conversations as people who may have been just acquaintances realized that we were all here for the same reason… making a difference in our community for Jesus Christ. By the way, that’s a COMMON VISION we all share!
• Moving Outside Our Comfort Zone
  I went with a group of about 15 people (13 of which were under 20!) to the Summit Apartments to deliver plates to low income families. I was so impressed with how these young people jumped in and over came the feelings of awkwardness and began to knock on doors, introduce themselves to total strangers and offered people a hamburger plate.
• Fellowship in Community is Important
  There is power in numbers. Despite how much work was involved, for the most part, no one was burdened with TOO much work to do. Everybody just pitched-in and got things done. What a great example of the church family operating as a BODY.
• Our Connection is Greater Than Our Differences
  As things wound down a basketball came out and several began to play some pick up basketball games. WOW, we have some tremendous athletes in our church family! Conversations began to circulate about future recreational softball & basketball teams. What I loved about this was that our church family began to find out that as different as we all are, there are many things that we have in common. And then they wanted to build on the common things…

And finally, near the end of the afternoon, the church family pulled me to the side and presented me with a birthday card and sang “Happy Birthday” to me and individually wished me a happy birthday. As I looked in the eyes of these once strangers who now care for me and my family, and whom I care for deeply, I realized, THIS IS WHAT JESUS' LOVE LOOKS LIKE IN PERSON.

Thank you Jesus, for allowing me the privilege to serve as LifeSpring’s pastor.