To Norman With Love

I'm going to take a break from the stories of individuals I see throughout the week. There are many sides to "Community Ministry" and being a part of people's continual transformation. One of which is trying to connect the local church body with the people of whom I have been writing these stories. It is paramount that believers expand their concept of what "church" is. You can't contain the Church within any walls, programs, or cultures. We are in the age of the Holy Spirit. God's mystery is continually being unfolded; we don't have the full picture.

One of the ways we are providing an opportunity for relational bridgebuilding to occur is through an upcoming event called "To Norman With Love". It will be a two day church-wide to city-wide service project. Currently, I am calling as many local agencies as possible to provide projects that will expose the FBC body to the civic context within which we find ourselves.

Churches are not islands. We either choose to help the needy around and within us or not.

The vision extends from Luke chapter 10 (the good samaritan story). The interesting thing about that story is that Jesus tells it in response to the question "Who is my neighbor?". As Jesus so often does, he turns the teaching moment back on us and tells us how to be a good neighbor.

So, the statement is not, "Tell me who my neighbor is so that I can know who to help." Instead, it's "I need to be the right kind of neighbor who goes out of my way for others."