Time, Time Tickin'

It's 11:32 PM and I'm exhausted but can't sleep, so I decided to write. There is much puttering around up here in my head -- the need to begin thinking about worship for next Sunday, the bulletin that needs to be completed tomorrow, the floors which need mopping, phone calls which need to be made, follow up visits to attend to, yet here I sit, averse to doing any of those . . . at least at this time of night.

I think I'm up because so much has been going on at the church lately. My outreach committee is really working hard at being a team to teach this congregation HOW to invite friends to worship and to share the love of God with their neighbors. This is big. I have tried many approaches to helping this happen but, like everything else in the church, a church member (preferably a volunteer leader) needs to get an idea in their head that this is what we need to do. I guess I see myself planting seeds until someone eventually says -- aha! THIS is what we need to do! And I nod my head as if I had never mentioned it before in my life. So anyway, this committe/team is doing a 2 month emphasis on sharing God's love with the "unchurched" -- meaning those who do not have a place to worship and who may not have ever considered that they even want a place to worship God. The first month they are introducing ways to connect to people. The second month, they are challenging the congregation to invite someone every week. I'm excited about this because the committee is excited about this. I'm also excited about this because the focus is not on money for a change but on the real stuff of ministry -- sharing God's love with our neighbors.

The idea behind the whole thing, however, is to show the congregation what they can do. After the 2nd month is over, we don't expect things to chill out at all. Rather, we hope that everyone has "practiced" inviting their friends and that they aren't so afraid to invite people in the future.

So this is the year of the invitation. And as people come, we will have to follow up with them, care with them, help them make this church their home, etc. But the Invite is first.

I suggested to the committee that as part of the training we talk about why we like this church and what brought us here. The committee members are going to share their reasoning and challenge others to share. (I secretly hope there's a revival where everyone begins talking about what God has done in their life and how they began to notice when they came to this church!) The committee members told me -- but Katie, you don't have to tell why you're here. But you know, I began to think. Sure, I came for the job. But the longer you stay someplace, the more you become a part of the community and the more you observe what's going on in the community. I began to see prayers being answered and people giving thanks to God. I began to see incarnation as the body of Christ served one another when community members were sick or lost a loved one. I began to form relationships as I trusted people with my own concerns and joys. And through all of this, I began to see God through the eyes of older people whose lives of faith had been challenged, yet still they persevered.

In a couple of weeks I will have been here 5 years. I am grateful to be a part of this young church's growth.