Sadly, when some people think of evangelical churches or mission-minded congregations, they envision a hard-sell, repent-or-go-to-hell, hear-the-fiery-sermon or we won't serve you food approach to ministry.
Yikes.
But what if churches didn't have to be like that?
Imagine a church that gives away (well, tries to give away) love, help & hope each day with no strings attached—no sermons to listen to, no religious tracts, no pitch for church membership or required attendance.
Imagine a church that partners with outside agencies like, let’s say, Salvation Army. And who intentionally fill holes in the system rather than duplicating services already provided by capable agencies/ministries. And who view others churches and agencies as potential friends & partners rather than the competition down the street.
Imagine a brand-new church that gives away tons (literally) of free groceries each week to anyone who is hungry. No IDs needed, no qualifying applications, no membership required, no hassles, umm, no strings. And anyone can come back whenever they're hungry again.
Imagine a church that is slowly becoming a gathering place—writer Ray Oldenburg calls them Third Places in his book "The Great Good Place"—for the surrounding neighborhood and community. A place where you can play a friendly game of chess/checkers, work on a puzzle, drink free coffee (frequently the good, fresh-ground stuff) and on Tuesdays there's free noontime meal.
Sound too good to be true? Well, I don’t think so. Because I'm experiencing something like this firsthand.
More in this link:
http://thejourney.typepad.com/photos/h2h_food_bank/index.html
and here...
http://thejourney.typepad.com/
**This is the kind of church I long for....
No comments:
Post a Comment