10 Apr Go and Proclaim

I love the fact that we have an opportunity to bless our community as a church!  I love our motto for this year ‘Be the Church’!  I cannot wait to see how we will be a part of changing the lives of 15 people in our ’15 Miracles for 15 People’ campaign!

It is easy to fall into comfortable familiarity. Mark tells us to “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” in Mark 16:15.  How can we ‘go and proclaim’ if we don’t get out and go?  We are so on fire at the very beginning, we get an idea and we run with it and then we run out if steam. It happens.  Maybe it happens because we get complacent or comfortable.  Maybe it happens because we get sidetracked, taken off course or we hit a brick wall. Nonetheless it happens.  What can we do?

Well, we currently have nearly 80 Small-Groups (we will have more by mid-summer) and almost 600 people connected in group!  We have lots of hands!  We are the resource, we are the Church! With that many people, come many ideas.  In group we do life together, we meet each other’s needs BUT we also meet the needs of those outside our group!  We don’t have to wait for the `15′ to do something, we can do something now.  Spreading the Gospel does not always mean using words. You may have heard this quote (although it is said that St. Francis of Assisi said it, but no one really knows for sure): “Preach the Gospel at all times.  Use words if necessary”.  And I am sure you have heard the old adage “No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care”. Again, Theodore Roosevelt may have said this, but no one really knows.  So, with this being said, there are many ways we can share the Good News just by doing something in and for our communities. 

Here are some ideas to help you get started: Reach out to a neighbor in need, help out at a local shelter or soup kitchen (a good place to start is the Providence Rescue Mission email chris@waterschurch.org), visit a nursing home, plant flowers at a local elderly center, pick up trash along the road (participate in the Great American Clean-up on May 5th), reach out to a family who is a victim of a fire in their home (Norton Glenn complex).  Look through your local paper or call the Salvation Army or Red Cross. Be creative.

Now, this does not take the place of our 15 Miracles for 15 People Campaign.  We want you to keep those nominations coming in.  You can write-up the details and submit them to your Coach.  This is forthcoming within a month or two.

Leaders, we may have about 1500 adults coming to our campuses each week, but there are still many who are ‘not yet here” (we do know where that quote came from:) . We also have nearly 900 people that are here, who are not connected in group.  Maybe, there is someone here among us that needs us to move out of our comfort zone and invite them to a group, show them we care, do something nice for them etc. Getting those people connected, makes more of us who can “go and proclaim”.