Posts
This Saturday we had a large garage sale. When we inherited the building, we inherited rooms of stuff, and decided the best thing to do would be to sell it. We had a great set of helpers from the district, and some delicious refreshments.
We made some money, which is always good, but the most exciting part of our time was seeing the church filled with so many people, and getting to meet so many of our neighbors we hadn't met yet.
Lot's of questions were asked about our church, we passed out stickers to the children, we handed out free cookies and lemonade. Our district helpers walked blocks and met people, passing out flyers about our sale, and answering questions about our church.
It was such an uplifting day. With all the road blocks that we've faced, things like broken windows, broken a/c, and flooding basements, this day was so worth it. Things really do seem to be moving in a great direction.
We still have a lot of stuff left, and will be having another sale soon, and putting some stuff on Craigslist, but that's just another opportunity to meet and engage with people.
this is how much stuff we have left... after the sale
To keep up with the momentum, we had our first bible study on Sunday evening. There were 3 people their. Our friends and their baby, who is also our god daughter. It may be a slow start, but we're ok with that. We knew things wouldn't happen over night, and we know that we want things to grow organically. Plus hanging out with our god daughter is always a good time.
A neighbor also approached us this week about holding Al-Anon meetings in the church, as well as asked to use the building for a birthday party. This is tremendously exciting, because as we've been saying, a building is just a building unless it's being used.
In my experience, the Church tends to think those uses must be by "members only" or for a worship service. A lot of times, even when there is a weekly worship service, a building sits empty the rest of the time. I've always questioned this. How is an empty building serving the kingdom? How is paying utilities for a whole month, only to be used a few hours a week, good stewardship?
Church buildings used to serve multiple purposes. They were the school house during the week, and held community meetings at other times. They were a meeting place for neighborhoods. I'm not advocating that we make our calendar more busy, that we come up with more programing that is costly, or that we guilt people in to coming to everything we offer, but I am asking if we need to be more available. It we need to be open to birthday celebrations, weddings, and funerals of people who aren't church members, but who are looking to the church with these life events.
That seems to be part of what the Church is supposed to be. A light in the darkness. A place for all people to come. A people who embrace others, who rejoice when they rejoice, and mourn with those who mourn.
Being invited into our neighbors lives is so much greater to us, than inviting them to a church service. It shows us that the prevenient grace of the Holy Spirit is calling to them, is moving in them, and we get the honor of being asked to be a part of that.
