It has been awhile since I have logged in and blogged. It is amazing how quickly we can let things go when our routines are broken. So  quite a bit has happened since my last blog. I have been around the world and back on a mission trip to Uganda, enjoyed some wonderful time with my family this summer, and now the summer has officially come to an end with the arrival of September. Although there are a myriad of topics that I would love to discuss on this blog, I am going to leave the past events where they lie for now and focus on current happenings.

During this past Sunday at Central we did something new, and pretty groundbreaking for our church. We opened our church doors, and instead of waiting for folks to come to us, we left our building to serve our community as our act of worship for that morning. We had crews delivering water to shelters and out on the streets, we had worship time at a retirement home, we cleaned up parks and a local ministry catering to childcare for those in desperate situations, and we made some blankets for children in Africa. And I must tell you that I was so proud of what we accomplished. I love to worship on Sunday mornings, but so often I leave feelings like the body of Christ could have done so much more together.

It was refreshing to allow our service to be our act of worship this past Sunday, and what a beautiful legacy to leave to our children. So often “the church” opens its doors expecting others to flood in to have their needs met, when we are called to be the church out in the world. One of my favorite books of all time is called The Same Kind of Different as Me, and it is a true story about friendship, faith, forgiveness surrounding the most unlikely of relationships between an art dealer and a homeless man. After the success of this book, Ron Hall and Denver Moore, the men on which this book is based, have had many opportunities to speak to churches, and at conferences about ministry to the homeless and racial reconciliation. In a new book chronically their most recent travels (What Difference do it Make?) Denver shares a pretty startling revelation, “Mr. Ron, all these white folks be invitin us to their Bible studies. How come none of ‘em’s invitin us to their Bible doins?”

Well, I can honestly say that it felt so good to be a part of some Bible” doin” this past week here at Central, and our church and community are better because of our efforts. The church is called to change lives with the grace found in the Gospel message, and it is hard to do that if we are afraid to open the doors and head out to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ.

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