The Big Event

Posted on October 22, 2006

Check this out:

This Sunday our church service is gonna look a little different!

Instead of setting up church… Instead of gathering together in a building and singing songs of praise to God… Instead of sitting in a room to hear a message…

This Sunday, we’re gonna disperse and invade one of our local communities, South Riding, to BE THE CHURCH and to BE AN OFFERING OF PRAISE and to BE THE MESSAGE.

The above is an excerpt from TransitionPete and I think it’s a great example for any church. Here’s the details of what they did:

Instead of having a regular church service, we gathered together by 9am on Sunday morning, assembled into teams of 4-7 members, and then dispersed into the South Riding community and served 61 homes.

I was on a garage clean-up team where we cleaned, swept, installed shelves, and organized a family’s garage. That was from 10am to about 11:45am. We broke for a bag lunch and then met up with another garage team that had been working on a “disaster” of a garage. We finshed up about 2pm.

They even have a website about The Big Event.
I have had a similar conversation with more than one person lately about the idea that the church needs to be more in the community and reaching people who need Jesus.  The fact is that people generally don’t walk into church looking for Jesus, more likely, they avoid the church and may even have a bad taste in their mouth about the church.

Isn’t it about time we go into our community and be Jesus, even if it means not being able to sit in our pew for one Sunday morning?   

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Comments

3 Responses to “The Big Event”

  1. pete on October 23rd, 2006 12:54 pm

    Thanks for posting this!

    I agree, we ought to be more diligent and more creative in working out ways to engage with the communities that we live in. This was a great event for us because it helps us remember that we’re not all about patting ourselves on our own backs and edifying one another. Sure, that’s important in terms of developing community, but Jesus is all about others — those that are outside of this wonderful thing we call the Body of Christ. We want to be about drawing others into this body!

  2. Brandon on October 24th, 2006 12:17 pm

    I can’t tell you how excited I was reading this post. This very thing has been echoing in me for months. It is definitely refreshing to see that others are thinking the same way, and putting it into action! All I have to say is Rock On!

  3. Church Marketing Sucks on October 27th, 2006 9:49 am

    Canceling a Church Service to Do Service…

    This is what church is supposed to be. Gateway Community Church in South Riding, Va. had “The Big Event” on Sunday, October 15. Instead of a typical Sunday morning worship service, the congregation went out and did volunteer work for 61 area homes. O…

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    Jim Walton is the leader of the Tech Arts Ministry of Fairview Christian Church. This blog is produced independently by Jim and it is his thoughts, his interests, his observations and his ideas. Anything expressed here is not necessarily representative of Fairview Christian Church, but it's likely pretty close! ;)

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