I don’t often share specific things about our local church, but I’m really excited about something the Lord is doing in our midst and I wanted to share with you.
About six months ago we realized that we had a problem from 6:00-7:00pm on Wednesday evenings. The Lord had been blessing our church with a growing children’s ministry and a thriving bus ministry. But we didn’t really have anything for the kids during this time. So what we had was mass chaos in our gym. About 60 kids of all ages were hanging out in the gym with somewhat minimal adult supervision. We knew this was a recipe for disaster and that we needed to do something.
Our children’s ministry team met together and we decided to start a new ministry of feeding the kids from 6-7. At first we thought maybe we could just give them hot dogs and pizza and a few of those staples from week to week. But the more we thought through this the more we saw this as an opportunity to serve our community. Rather than just feeding the kids a minimal meal we decided to go all out and open it up to our whole community.
We decided to run the bus routes a little earlier and to begin our meals at 6:00. We eat from 6:00-6:45 and have half the gym still opened up for games. At 6:45 we move all the kids and youth towards the stage area in our gym for a time of worship and a get together time that lasts until a little after 7:00. Then they go into their various groups. The adults during this time quickly pick up the meal side of things and get the gym ready again for the children. Our church rocks at serving in this way.
There is also a woman in our church who had been convinced for a few years now that God was going to use her in a significant way to feed people. Once we opened this idea up to the church, she leaped at the chance to serve. We put together a nice kitchen crew who has been able to get our meals down to about $1 per plate. (And we are talking amazing food that you’d want to write home about). Our Sunday School classes rotate on a weekly basis to serve the food.
When we first began this we were lingering around 100 people—most of them kids and no visitors. The past couple of weeks, though, we have been averaging anywhere from 150 (to even having around 170 one week). And what I’m really excited to see is that our children’s programs are growing but so are the adults. We are seeing more and more visitors and more new families coming to our church. There are many loving people in our church who warmly embrace new families who walk through our door—they eat with them, build relationships with them, and before you know it those folks are coming to our Wednesday evening Bible study. It’s exciting to see.
What I’m really excited about with this is how our church stepped up even when they didn’t know for sure what the outcome would be. We didn’t know how much this would cost (as we don’t charge a dime) and they didn’t know the logistics of it. But they had patience with this young pastor and decided to give it a go. I’m grateful for their faithfulness and willingness to try something new.
I want to close by saying there are a few things which drive this program.
First, we believe we have a debt to love the children in our community. If this program idea had fallen flat we just would have had to come up with some other tangible way to love the children. I should mention that I’m encouraged by how some of our people are thinking through ways to serve the community even more (things like community gardens and other great ideas).
Secondly, we want to be a community resource. When people think of FBC Marionville we want them to know that we love them and care for them. We believe that when people rubbed shoulders with Jesus they didn’t walk away thinking he was cold and calloused towards them. When people met Jesus they knew he was holy but that holiness showed itself in compassion towards the broken and even rebellious.
Thirdly, we believe children aren’t just the church of tomorrow—they are the church of today. We want to disciple kids. We want them to be passionate followers of Jesus—now, and not just tomorrow.
Lastly, we believe that the power of God for salvation is still the gospel. We don’t care much about trying to get people through our door because of flashy entertainment or catchy giveaways. We want to love people, serve people, and share the gospel with folks. We want to spread the gospel with our life and our lips. Feeding people—for free—is a tangible way for us to do this. We want to put actions behind our words. And we also want to see transformation happen. We desire to see lasting change in peoples lives and so we are consistently training our people to enter into the lives of those who come on Wednesday night.
It’s amazing seeing God move here. He really is powerful. Simple things like feeding people food, loving them, and sharing Jesus is a tremendous thing in a world which is starved for real affection and compassion.
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Photo source: here
So happy for what God is doing at your church, Mike! :0)