Going Mobile

Last month Connection Church, my & Scott's home church, did a series titled, "Going Mobile." Brandon, our pastor, based the sermons on the fact that the whole world seems to be going mobile. Everyone is connected and mobilized by technological advances such as the internet, lap tops, cell phones (now with all kinds of crazy abilities, or "apps"), iPods, iPads, etc... But the church generally doesn't seem to be very mobile. So many of us happily go sit in church once a week, maybe do some fellowship with other church members, maybe invite someone else to church, and that's about it. But the Body of Christ (the church) is about much more than that. We're meant to be the hands and feet of Christ! We're called to do His work, serve and love others, and help build the Kingdom. Attending a church service is a great way to learn more about God, worship, and fellowship with other believers. But if we want to really serve others and build the Kingdom, we must be willing to do more. We have to go mobile. After 3 sermons on this topic, we were challenged to preach the message for the 4th Sunday by actually doing what we had been talking about. We took the day, and went mobile with our church. We shared the love of God with our community by putting roofs on houses, cleaning apartments, doing yard work, building wheel chair ramps, painting dumpsters, visiting residents of nursing homes, and having our kids fellowship with kids from the community who may not know God or have the opportunity to go to church. We took the day to take the focus off of ourselves and a typical church service and we worshipped and served God by serving the community. And really, this is what being missional is truly about. Yes, going to other countries and sharing the love of God is important, but a missional church will also share the love of God with people right here in our own neighborhoods. We should be a walking mission for God...wherever we go and in whatever we do. This video does a good job illustrating this. This is not a video made by Connection Church, but I thought it explained the idea very well.



This is what we should be doing everyday, but our church specifically took a day to work on this idea and to help reach out to our community.

We arrived at church at 8:30 in the morning. We then broke up into groups, each going to a different place and doing different work. Scott went with a roofing group, but he mainly helped with the yard work. This particular family had a house built by the husband, but he had left the picture. He didn't do a great job with the house, and the roof was never finished. He just nailed plywood up and put a tarp over it. Needless to say, this caused lots of leaking. The son, not knowing what else to do, would just nail another piece of wood over the wholes. This was essentially causing more holes and worse leaks. In addition to the roof problem, no one had taken care of the yard. It needed to be cut and there was garbage, debris, and lumber scattered about. They filled 4 whole dumpsters full, and Scott and one other person cut all the grass. The rest of the group worked on getting a roof put on the house. I volunteered to work with the kids as we still needed child care and we believe it's important that the children are also learning to serve others. I was in the 1st-5th graders group. We took them to Gentilly Gardens Nursing Home to do arts and crafts with some of the residents. It was incredible watching these young children fellowship with these older adults. They were so kind, patient, and loving towards them. It was such a blessing to witness! I think the residents greatly enjoyed the experience as well. Then, after lunch, we took the kids to Little Lotts Creek Apartments to play with some of the kids there. Some of these kids live in very unfortunate circumstances and may not have parents who tell them about Jesus. We played games and hung out with these kids. It was amazing to see the diversity of all the kids happily playing together. That's what the love of God looks like. It was truly moving to see how these children from strikingly different circumstances could come together with the love of Christ to play together and have fun.

I know I was deeply moved, as was Scott and many others from our church by this service day. I feel so blessed to be a part of this church that reaches out to others, does not judge, but acts in love and service to others. Our mission wasn't one of going out and trying to convince people to believe a story...we were going out and demonstrating the very thing we believe in while helping them in ways they could not help themselves. I believe that is the very best way to witness to others and spread the message of the gospel. Beyond myself and the community, I know this encouraged our church members to move forward in a missional and loving attitude. Jon Irvan made this incredible video to share some of the testimonies that we all shared after returning back to the church that evening, paired with some footage from the service day. Check it out, it's really inspirational!



I challenge each of you to move forward in your lives with love and kindness towards others. The best way to worship and serve God is by loving and serving others! Thank you, Connection Church for helping us all witness this first-hand!