Prayer and Outreach

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We had stellar outreach success this past weekend. We touched lots of people but more importantly those we approached were spiritually open. I’ve done plenty of outreaches where all of the elements of a great outreach seemed to be present yet nothing much happened. What is the difference maker between those times when we fire on all eight cylinders – when there is an obvious anointing, and other times when we are just slogging it out?

This past Saturday we did something a bit different not on purpose but quite by accident. We have been prayer walking for some months. Those prayer times of going on site to specific areas where we feel impressed to literally both walk about and simultaneously pray have seemed fruitful. We have not been able to measure our fruitfulness – at least not until this past weekend. This time we accidentally double scheduled our prayer walking time with our outreach time. We had people doing a prayer walk in the same areas and the same time as where we did the burger outreaches. In spite of the “mistake”, this one-two combination was electric. Many of the outreach people commented that there was a unique sense of freedom present as they went out to share God’s love in practical ways.

It took a scheduling glitch to discover something quite brilliant. I hope we can keep this before us in coming months as we continue to reach out, both on our knees and with beautiful feet at the same time.

Hey Steve, Had to share this. We did the $1 car wash and this was a article one of our students wrote after. IT WAS AWESOME!!!

I had to write this editorial for a writing company and group that I “work for” and I decided to write it on this week’s car wash. I hope you read it and you like it, but most importantly for those of you who weren’t there, I hope you get to experience the same thought provoking stuff that we did!! here it is:

Whether you call it moolah, dough, greenbacks, or the root of all things evil, we cannot turn a cheek to the lucid reality that money is the steering wheel by which our society is driven. Be it a credit card or the face of Alexander Hamilton on a ten dollar bill, the superiority and significance we have placed in the American Dollar is doubtlessly monumental.

Within the previous week, it bas been my experience to discover just how much of a role money plays in the daily lives and thoughts of an economically centered society and culture. I was given the opportunity to participate in a local serving project with the goal of washing people’s cars for free, and then in turn, giving the driver money as opposed to actually receiving it. The experience was not only a turn of the tables, but a twist that was truly thought provoking.

We know that nothing is free. We must purchase food, transportation, utilities, education and entertainment. In our world today, people need jobs and occupations through which surrounding communities must revolve and use to their advantage. In the reality of things, a car wash is performed with the goal of either providing paychecks to an employee or collecting money for an upcoming event or ongoing project. I stood on the median between passing cars and business trucks, waving neon yellow posterboards displaying “Free Car Wash” across the center. Drivers and passengers alike would chuckle, scoff, smile, give me a wave of the hand, or slow to a stop and question me as to whether or not this alleged car wash was truly free. As I answered yes, heads would turn and cars would pull in.

Temperatures would rise well into the high 90’s and low 100’s, and I would sit on a curb and wonder just how society would look if we would take the occasional moment to offer up a product or a service for free. Not just a “buy one get one free” Mcdonalds coupon or a typical company marketing strategy, but a true act of selfless servitude that could very well change the thoughts and the heart of someone on the receiving end.

I would wave a sign, scrub a tire, dry a windshield, or talk to a driver. The suspicions were high, but I was there to serve and not to receive what they were eventually willing to offer. I’ve come to understand that money is not only a necessity to living, but it is expected of us and has become embedded into the way our minds are wired and running. A man on the corner with a purple backpack and metal thermos moved me off of the median with a hesitant apology, reminding me he needed food and money for transportation while I probably had a car and a house. I smiled and stood on a community bench across from him, waving my sign and watching those I was with give away dollars to reapers of our service. Some would gasp, some would sit still, some would show us an unintended sense of gratitude and gratefulness.

What if we gave selflessly? What if we could at least, on occasion, give and get nothing for what we gave? Could we alter a generation and walk in the opposite direction?

By Mckinzie Step

1 COMMENT

Tom Fox at

Hey Steve, Had to share this. We did the $1 car wash and this was a article one of our students wrote after. IT WAS AWESOME!!!

I had to write this editorial for a writing company and group that I “work for” and I decided to write it on this week’s car wash. I hope you read it and you like it, but most importantly for those of you who weren’t there, I hope you get to experience the same thought provoking stuff that we did!! here it is:

Whether you call it moolah, dough, greenbacks, or the root of all things evil, we cannot turn a cheek to the lucid reality that money is the steering wheel by which our society is driven. Be it a credit card or the face of Alexander Hamilton on a ten dollar bill, the superiority and significance we have placed in the American Dollar is doubtlessly monumental.

Within the previous week, it bas been my experience to discover just how much of a role money plays in the daily lives and thoughts of an economically centered society and culture. I was given the opportunity to participate in a local serving project with the goal of washing people’s cars for free, and then in turn, giving the driver money as opposed to actually receiving it. The experience was not only a turn of the tables, but a twist that was truly thought provoking.

We know that nothing is free. We must purchase food, transportation, utilities, education and entertainment. In our world today, people need jobs and occupations through which surrounding communities must revolve and use to their advantage. In the reality of things, a car wash is performed with the goal of either providing paychecks to an employee or collecting money for an upcoming event or ongoing project. I stood on the median between passing cars and business trucks, waving neon yellow posterboards displaying “Free Car Wash” across the center. Drivers and passengers alike would chuckle, scoff, smile, give me a wave of the hand, or slow to a stop and question me as to whether or not this alleged car wash was truly free. As I answered yes, heads would turn and cars would pull in.

Temperatures would rise well into the high 90’s and low 100’s, and I would sit on a curb and wonder just how society would look if we would take the occasional moment to offer up a product or a service for free. Not just a “buy one get one free” Mcdonalds coupon or a typical company marketing strategy, but a true act of selfless servitude that could very well change the thoughts and the heart of someone on the receiving end.

I would wave a sign, scrub a tire, dry a windshield, or talk to a driver. The suspicions were high, but I was there to serve and not to receive what they were eventually willing to offer. I’ve come to understand that money is not only a necessity to living, but it is expected of us and has become embedded into the way our minds are wired and running. A man on the corner with a purple backpack and metal thermos moved me off of the median with a hesitant apology, reminding me he needed food and money for transportation while I probably had a car and a house. I smiled and stood on a community bench across from him, waving my sign and watching those I was with give away dollars to reapers of our service. Some would gasp, some would sit still, some would show us an unintended sense of gratitude and gratefulness.

What if we gave selflessly? What if we could at least, on occasion, give and get nothing for what we gave? Could we alter a generation and walk in the opposite direction?

By Mckinzie Step