This wonderful, refreshing, and astounding thing about our 2 year old church plant is that this never happens. Ever. Instead people say things like:
*Would it be okay if I get everything organized so that we can participate in the community-wide "Make a Difference" Day?
So one 23-year-old who was not yet a believer (that has since changed, glory to God!) got us registered with the city, made sign up sheets, contacted everyone, and here was the result. We raked 3 different yards of people unable to do so and had a great time together doing it...in the rain even!
...or this
*Hey Robert, since we always have a cookout and party every time someone is baptized and you do all of the shopping, why don't you just let me handle it?
And so one of our patriarchs took another college student with him and they bought all of the food and saved my husband a lot of time and headache. Not only that, but these particular baptisms took place outside in a river...in the fall...in Wisconsin. This means it was cold! It was cold for those of us who didn't get in the water and even colder for those who did. So, this wonderful gentleman at our church and his accomplice not only bought and cooked the food to grill out, but he purchased a camp stove (with his own money) and they made two huge pots of soup. What a blessing!
...and then
*Would it be okay if we went caroling to a nursing home? Then I was thinking that we could come back to church a little early and all eat chili together. Then this family, who has only been attending our church since August coordinated the caroling, had everyone sign up for chili and the fixings, provided song books and music, and organized the meeting times and places. My husband and I did nothing but make a pot of chili like everyone else and then we showed up.
Caroling
Chili eating
Wow! I've been married to a pastor for 20 years and in no church before have I ever seen the body of Christ really use their different giftings and serve in such a wonderful way. And these are only a few examples. We had a college student couple organize day for us to clean up the playground at a Section 8 housing complex and play with the children there. We had people take over nursery duty, set up policies and guidelines, and coordinate that. People volunteer to make homemade goodies for the hospitality table week after week after week.
Indeed we are
