Earlier this week, several of us spent a day (or two) at a conference up in Longmont. The basic point of the conference was that it's not enough for a church to preach the good news to others. We must also show others the good news (I sure hope that sounds familiar!) Speakers challenged us all to make sure that we are loving our neighbors and making our presence felt in the community. The basic goal was to do/be church in such a way that people in our communities would actually notice if we shut down (that's been stated as a goal of First, by the way).
Well, the conference was both affirming and challenging. Affirming, because we could pat ourselves on the back and say: "Yeah, this First Church gets this. We've been loving our neighbors for a long time. We know that word and deed can't be separated." I think this is particularly true of the way we act as individuals in our community: the commitment of people in our church to ministries like Joshua Station, VIA, Kids Hope USA at McKinley-Thatcher, Partners Worldwide, CRWRC Disaster Response, and various other ministries really is quite phenomenal. So yeah, way to go First Church members. You done good.
At the same time, however, we wondered how we as an institution could improve our presence and ministry in the community. I realize that there is overlap between things we do as individuals (what we might call the "Church as Organism") and as an organization, but I'm curious about what folks at First think it means for us "Love our Neighbors" in Platte Park. What are the "needs" of this community that we can meet? How can we show the love of Jesus here? If you have any ideas, feel free to post a comment or talk/email me or Shirley. We'd love to hear from you...(and don't worry about proof reading. I don't proof read and don't expect you to either!)
Tangents. Rants. Ramblings. Etc. Etc.
1 comment:
Sunday evening worship....this tradition for several people at First Church completes their Sabbath through spiritual nourishment and fellowship. But it meets the needs of only a handful. In a time when attendance of the evening service is declining, I've often struggled with what this fact might reflect about our church. But maybe that's not really the issue. Maybe I should be asking what could the evening service (or any service) reflect about our efforts to reach out to Platte Park? This week, June 3, a young couple, persumably from the neighborhood attended the evening service. And I was faced with the question (rooted possibly in fear) of whether or not how we worshiped, and how we welcomed had any relevence to them. I confess that in planning the evening service I don't plan with visitors from the neighborhood in mind. I have to wonder if maybe we're missing an opportunity here. Maybe the issue is instead what could evening worship reflect about our outreach in the neighborhood. BBQ out front? Prayer walks? Drum Circle? Taize services? I don't know....
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