Hey MABC family & friends,
Let’s start this morning out with a big thank you to all who brought “goodies” for the Lawrence Elementary School faculty and staff. Thank you to the AWANA crew who made individual bags of trail mix and cookies for each member of the faculty/staff. The teachers we ran into in the faculty/staff lounge were wowed by how much we brought. They mentioned something about a sugar high the rest of the week! I will be posting some pics on Tuesday. I am trying to establish a pattern of posting on Facebook that was recommended by some people smarter than me in social media so that we can maximize our reach.
I think back to our message yesterday about worship and two aspects we talked about. The first is sacrifice and the other was service. You sacrificed financially to either buy goodies or to buy the ingredients to bake or make snacks. And in doing so, you served a very deserving population in the teachers at Lawrence Elementary School. In my family, I have a sister, a brother and his wife, a niece and a nephew’s wife who are all teachers. We have several retired teachers in our church family. Teachers are underappreciated and in this current social climate don’t get a lot of respect or support. You made their week! Everyday someone will walk in to the faculty/staff lounge and see YOU! In the long run, we hope they begin to see the Lord as we build this relationship in the coming year.
This is just a beginning in an effort to change our neighborhood for the better. I often ask churches I go to help a couple of questions. If your church was to close down, would your neighborhood notice? Other than an empty building with a “For Sale” sign, would they notice you are gone? Remembering that this is a marathon and not a sprint, let’s desire to be a place that the community would dread losing. To do that means we have to get uncomfortable and be engaged in community. In a recent church leaders conference video I shared with the Wednesday night Bible study crew, Wilfredo de Jesus, the General Treasurer of the Assemblies of God, says that the “irresistible church” lives heart first. What he means is that we must have a heart of compassion for and minister to our neighborhood.
Again, thank you for your efforts in this outreach. I believe we were all called at this time to seek and save the lost, to serve and not be served. Those are red letter words in the Bible which means they are not my words but the words of the One who called us together. Let’s tell Him that we think He is “worthy” by doing just that!
Pastor Rick
