news article

This is a news article about a church in my city...what do you think?


Mega-Church Cancels Services to Serve Community


"We are taking part in a weekend project called 'Servolution'" Heflin said. "Where our entire church is just going out all over the city and just blessing different
organizations and just serving our city in different ways."
They won't be taking a break for a sermon in the morning.
"We believe that's why
the church exists," Heflin said. "It's to be here for our communities So I think the church is best expressed when we go outside the walls of our church and get in to our community and be who we're supposed to be as Christians."
As one of the fastest growing churches in America and Lubbock, Heflin's assistant Mary Grace Seagraves said they've welcomed a significant following. "We have a congregation of about 3,000 so we wanted to make sure we had projects for every single person," Seagraves said.
Experience Life members are making care packages and building pergolas for the Rape Crisis Center, doing construction at the Children's home, and hosting a luncheon for
foster graduates and then taking them on a shopping spree. They said it's all made possible by a generous congregation.
"We're very passionate about what we take we give away so that's where a lot of the money comes from," Seagraves said. "It's just through our Congregation giving tithes and offering." "It's what we're called to do as Christians," Seagraves said. "To be the church in our city and serve and give everything that we have just as Jesus laid down his life for us, we meant to lay down our lives for others ."
Project leaders said they hope to inspire others.
"Serving your community is not just a one time event," Heflin said. "It's not just a 'Servolution' and it's not just for churches. It's for every person living in this community. So I would just encourage every person living here, find somebody to serve. Find a way to bless another one and just see what happens in this city."


http://everythinglubbock.com/fulltext?nxd_id=108142

I like it. You can't keep 'church' hidden behind four walls and some pretty windows. True 'church' is out there showing God to others, not a secret club and only on Sunday and Wednesday.

sabidoo is correct. While the Emergent Movement is really light on doctrine, they do have the service/social aspect of the gospel down that so many mainstream denominations are missing. How are you going to know the needs of your community unless you get out among them and get to know them? How are you going to meet them if you stay inside your sanctuary? Serving others does a couple of things: A) allows you to see and know the needs of the community, B) assists those in need, and C) begins to earn you the right to share the gospel as people become comfortable with you and see that you aren't a bunch of religious bigots who shut the world out.

that's good stuff, but somewhere in there, i hope they're still hearing the Word. that's equally important.

the story of Mary and Martha comes to mind. Jesus came to visit and Martha set about readying the house and working to prepare food.
Mary sat at Jesus' feet to hear him speak.
a frustrated Martha asked Jesus to instruct Mary to get up and help her work.

Quote :

Luke 10:40-42
⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care^(A) that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
⁴¹ “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried^(B) and upset about many things, ⁴² but few things are needed—or indeed only one.^[a](C) Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

also, Romans 10:17:

Quote :

¹⁷ Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message,^(C) and the message is heard through the word about Christ.

without a steady diet of the Word, it's very easy to go dry, spiritually, and no amount of community service or good works will satisfy that need.

I agree with Just_Sue, in that one must know what one believes to preach it and share it. I believe fellowship at church is just as important as reaching out.

If this church never has services, then I think that's kinda wrong, but if they do bi-weekly, that's ok with me.

I don't think the article or anyone here is advocating not having good preaching/teaching for their congregation. But, if the church is just staying in the pews and not doing anything with what they learn, then what's the point?

I think that is fantastic!

All churches need to be involved with their community, or they are just a "holy huddle" that sits around cloistered away from the rest of the world (I have been seriously guilty of this myself).

But I also agree with Sue, I have been involved with some seriously "seeker friendly/emergent" churches. And their idea of being involved in the community was to set up a stand giving away hot chocolate on halloween. Nothing on the stand said anything about the church, and volunteers from the church serving at the hot chocolate stand were not allowed to "preach" to anyone. Most of the "outreach" stuff done by these churches were just like that. So if you don't make the gospel present to people (at least on some level) all you are doing as a church is making life a "nicer place to go to hell from".

alldatndensum wrote:

I don't think the article or anyone here is advocating not having good preaching/teaching for their congregation. But, if the church is just staying in the pews and not doing anything with what they learn, then what's the point?

They'd be looking through rose coloured stain glass windows…

The trickiest part of this whole "church" thing is getting the balance between solid preaching and community involvement to be in the right proportions.

Too much of one thing and no one other than those already in the church will ever know.......too much of the other and all those people you're reaching out to never hear the Gospel.....

Balance, people, balance.

bassdude wrote:

The trickiest part of this whole "church" thing is getting the balance between solid preaching and community involvement to be in the right proportions.

Too much of one thing and no one other than those already in the church will ever know.......too much of the other and all those people you're reaching out to never hear the Gospel......

Agreed!

Quote :

I have been involved with some seriously "seeker friendly/emergent" churches. And their idea of being involved in the community was to set up a stand giving away hot chocolate on halloween. Nothing on the stand said anything about the church, and volunteers from the church serving at the hot chocolate stand were not allowed to "preach" to anyone.

That's just saddening. Defeats the whole purpose of why the church exists to begin with.

Joker wrote:

Quote :

I have been involved with some seriously "seeker friendly/emergent" churches. And their idea of being involved in the community was to set up a stand giving away hot chocolate on halloween. Nothing on the stand said anything about the church, and volunteers from the church serving at the hot chocolate stand were not allowed to "preach" to anyone.

That's just saddening. Defeats the whole purpose of why the church exists to begin with.

Agreed. The pastor's premise was that he thought we needed to soft cell the gospel so as not to offend anyone. I agree that we need to try to keep from offending people. If you think about it telling people that they are not good enough on their own and need a Savior is already pretty offensive...but they need to hear it.