Category — Observations

We went out to connect with retail shops by offering to clean their toilets. We simply walked into these places with our cleaning kits in hand and said, “Hi, we’re here to clean your toilets – for free – to show you a bit of God’s kindness.” Pretty much everyone gave us a funny look. They all said they didn’t want it – but I could tell they assumed we wanted a donation. I know they thought this. We had to say several times we were doing this strictly for free with no donations accepted at all. It was only after we had told them several times that this was for FREE and we weren’t taking donations that they lightened up. After that we were able to connect with them. We were able to tell them this was a way of conveying the love of God to our neighbors. They warmed up quickly after that.
The Church has a lot of work to do in this area. We need to get to work by conveying to the culture around us what we are about. It is common that people who aren’t a part of church (perhaps they are a part of church…) think we are all about raising money. It is almost inconceivable that Jesus’ followers would do something altruistic. We need to get to work by serving others in a big way.
At the same time this provides the Church with significant opportunities. We make a strong impact by serving in surprising ways. We are able to break through into people’s lives by doing simple, doable serving projects. I don’t have a corner on the market of ideas we need to be involved with but I have discovered a few things apparently connect with the watching world.
I pray for more hearts in the Church to be able to hear the challenge God is offering these days. I pray we can sense his calling out to the culture around us. As Jesus said the harvest is plentiful – it is the laborers that are few.

Just Show Up!
When it comes to doing outreach projects with teams a lot can go right… and wrong. After doing team-oriented outreaches for decades now I realize a lot can go haywire when you step out to serve the community with a number of people. Today I was scheduled to go out with a number of folks. We are approaching the end of the year so people are a bit busier than usual. However today we had a number who were to have been present at this outing no matter what. When all things came together we had a grand total of just me and another guy present. Two of us! We made a last minute adjustment to our focus and we went out just the same.
All went well in spite of the low numbers. We spoke with a number of interesting people who were out in the retail areas of town. It seemed a good time was had by all. All and all we made progress today.
When times are down a bit it is still time to go out and make connections. No matter what, today is the day for us to connect with the community. God will show up day after day as long as we show up.

As we continue with serving it becomes fairly normal that we will expand to multiple services. By serving we are folding into the community in creative ways with the life of God. That life has a way of making room for itself much like the verse in Proverbs, “your gifts will make room for you.” So it is that our gifts make spectacular room for us in the current scenarios we find ourselves in.

Let’s serve with all our hearts and leave the details of how things work out up to God. More to come on the planning details to keep in mind when expanding toward multiple services. Key thought though is decide you are open to the notion of more services for now and are willing to pay the price to get from here to there. Once that quality decision has been made you can go a long way toward accomplishing your goal.

Ever get to a fork in the road? Yogi Berra exhorts us to take it in times like that.

We can hopefully all relate to the notion of coming to a fork in the road in the best sense of the possibilities that God is opening up for us.

I know more people who are in some sense of flux right now than I can remember in recent memory. Maybe change comes to us in clumps. Perhaps God works on a broad scale as a Scatterer of seeds of change. It seems clear that God does mount changes with groups in similar ways all at once.  Our part is to role with the punches as it all starts to flow. We get to practice patient endurance as chance commences.

So how is your change happening these days? How do you rate it? If those around you are going through thick change you might be next though we don’t need to anticipate any negativity.

A number of readers wrote in to us, sharing their desire to reach people in their community, but frustrated due to a lack of finances. I hope this video helps you move forward, no matter what your financial situation:

How Much Money Is Needed to Start Servant Evangelism?

Also, you will want to check the ServeCoach blog this Thursday to watch my interview with Mike Slaughter, pastor of Ginghamsburg Church in Tipp City, OH. We’ll be talking about how it’s time to rediscover our apostolic DNA and become the church Christ intended us to be.

Keep walking in the outflow!

Steve

PS – I hope you are as excited about May 6th as I am! Please let your friends know by pointing them to ServeCoach.com!