This is a project that I just coordinated for our church. I'm sharing it here, in case you can use the model in your community. It's a great way to get people of all ages involved in service.
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24 Church is partnering with the
community in a new tradition called “Serve Sunday”. Each quarter 24 Church will abandon the traditional practice
of worshiping in church pews in order to spend the day serving others in
schools, homes, community parks, and nonprofit agencies.
Volunteer
Jessica Cron describes the day, “Our
church went into the community in teams with 18 different service projects.
Which included building fences at baseball parks, cleaned and painted schools,
repair projects at homes, helped the nursing home. Our family went to the
library to clean
and organize books. All of us went with the love of Jesus to serve anyone in
need and serve them with that love. It was amazing! Who knows how many lives were touched by us
doing these little things today!”
Stories from the volunteers and from those
served.
Robyn Miller,
Vice Principal at Sycamore Middle School, said, “They came to school and
painted a classroom that was in desperate need of a makeover. It is so
refreshing to see people so freely giving of their time and talents. Whole
families working together. What great examples. We so appreciate their help
today.”
One of the teen
girls being helped said, “It was really cool to have so many nice people come
to help our family. They helped us clean our rooms, paint three rooms and put together
furniture for us.”
As the church family worked in neighbor’s homes to cut down
trees, spread gravel, paint rooms, clean and organize; you could see hope light
up on their faces. A little bit of
kindness was a powerful antidote to feeling overwhelmed and alone. Serve Sunday
Director Ann Saylor said “It felt great to give people hope – the hope of
people loving them, and the hope of a God who really cares about us.” She
added, “It was also powerful to listen to how much people learned by serving.”
Valarie
Harris, a volunteer, said, “I had an amazing day today. I went to serve the homeless & THEY
served me. I saw genuine smiles and
heard laughter from people who have every reason to be miserable. I was
reminded that God is everywhere & longs to comfort those who are hurting.
I'm dumbfounded with gratitude & joy & never once thought about the 35
degree weather or the rain. My heart was warm & my eyes & ears were
open to God at work among the lowliest of places!!”
Project
Coordinator Jessica Sills said, “This morning, my eyes were opened to see just
how many opportunities there are to serve others around me. I followed God's
lead out of my comfort zone and got to visit with and pray for complete
strangers who now remain on my heart. If we pray for opportunities, God will reveal
them all around us.”
Project
Coordinator Lisa McNeese summed up the hope for Serve Sunday perfectly, “I just
pray that lives were touched today and that people were drawn closer to God
through the simple acts of service and kindness.”
Serve Sunday relates directly to 24 Church’s mission to Love
God, Love People, Live Gospel and Make Disciples. “They say you win people TO what you win them
WITH”, says Pastor Chris Royalty, “and the American church has won people to a Sunday
morning church event. Weekly worship is
important - but there's more to being the church than this. We have chosen to
try to do some things we see the church called to do in ways contrary to normal
gatherings but living out these things are as much worship as gathering at a
building. We don't want to just go to church, we want to be the church and
living out the gospel is an important key to do this. Serve Sunday is a way for
us to practice together what God is calling us to do every moment of our lives.”
Special thanks
to C&R Services, Rogers Group Inc., and Gardner Landscapes for generously
donating supplies and equipment to make some of the projects possible.
