I Am The Church

On Sunday, our family participated in an awesome church-wide event.  Instead of going to church on Sunday morning, we went out in the community to "Be The Church."  There was a sign on the church door that said: "The church has left the building."  LOL.  Fitting.  We all went out into different parts of the community to share God's love by serving others.  We hoped to share God's grace with others in many different ways.  The types of service varied greatly - some with large groups from church, others with just one family.  Some groups visited people, some made meals, some went to local trails to pass out water and granola bars, some went to the local hospital to pass out doughnuts to nurses.  There were tons of service ideas that I don't even know about.  The point was simply to get out and BE the church by serving others ... not evangelizing, just serving and sharing God's love.

DH and I led a group at a local park - we passed out free water bottles, munchkins and coffee.  Many of the park-goers there weren't sure what to make of us and just said "no thanks" whenever we offered.  I think the typical American response is "we don't want whatever you're selling."  It took a little while to make people understand that we didn't want to sell anything, we simply wanted to give.  There were a few families that stuck out - I know we blessed them.  One family was so happy that we had left our church to come be with the community, the dad just kept saying "thank you" over and over again.  It was totally precious.  Another family, as they were driving away in their car, had their arms hanging out the window to waive goodbye.  They had such big smiles on their faces, well I just know we blessed their day too.  And only God knows how many other families we may have blessed somehow that we didn't even know.  It was a cool day, the kids really enjoyed it.

And if that wasn't enough, we had a touching celebration worship that evening back at church.  The service brought me to tears several times as I stood in awe of our amazing Creator.  What an awesome, everlasting God we serve.  It can be easy to forget that people are the church, not the building.  We are the hands and feet of Jesus.  You and me.  This event was a great reminder.  As our church continues to share God's love while serving others in the community, I want my life to glorify Him more and more every day.  I know I fall short daily, hourly, minute by minute.  But I pray that through Him, I will lose more of myself in service to Him.  And hopefully in that process, bring more people to Christ.