Being the hands and feet of Christ

Today I traveled to Shiloh Baptist Church in Hartford with Cynthia Strouse, Sue Ferguson, Amanda Duntz and Curt Brockway for our Missional Church workshop with Glynnis LeBarre from National Ministries. It was a great session.

The Missional Church Project is all about being the church in our community. As we come together we explore the vision of the body of Christ that Jesus had. It looked vastly different than what we often think about today. The early Christians met in homes. They supported each other physically as well as emotionally and spiritually. Love was the key and knowing each other was important.

Glynnis reminded us that the world has changed in the last fifty years. The church and the Christian religion was the dominant culture. We sat back and waited for everyone to come to us... and they did. We did programs, we worshipped, we had pot lucks and enjoyed being the center of community life. But that has all changed. Today we represent a minority and two generations of kids have grown up without church in their lives. In many corners of our world the church has become irrelevant.

The good news is that it forces us to rethink our mission. It gives us the opportunity to go back in time and see what it means to be the body of Christ, to be his hands, feet, ear, and eyes. As we look at Jesus in the scriptures, we get an idea of what he is calling is to do and be. We are to be the salt, the light, revealing God's love and compassion in our neighborhoods.

So that is what we are looking to do at First Baptist. We have our first project and you will be hearing more about it in the coming weeks. We are going to partner with some others in our community to meet a need this winter. We hope to reach out with "Winter survival kits" to some of those in need in our neighborhood o the West Side. In doing so we will be able to show our neighbors we care.

It should be interesting. Stay tuned as the plan develops.

Cal