“Churches Making a Difference, Together”
PR A XIS Fall/Winter 2010
Churches Unite for a Weekend of Kindness by Micky Shearon
“When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade” so goes the old saying. The Apostle Paul put it like this: “And we know that in all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28) Such was the case with the Love Granbury Kindness Explosion event this past April in Granbury, Texas. Not even an all day torrential downpour deterred the twenty participating churches to share God’s love with the greater Granbury area. In fact, the rain only served to make most of our kindness projects even more powerful than they normally would have been. And we know that in all things
work together for good . . . We kicked things off with a Friday night worship service at Acton Baptist Church, as song leaders Lincoln Wiseman and Caroline George led us. Then, our special guest speaker for the evening, Dr. Al Tizon, brought a great message about the true meaning and importance of unity in the Body of Christ. Dr. Tizon led us through a time of repentance and renewal as the altars were filled with God’s people crying out for more unified mission in and through the church. The next day amidst a downpour of rain, members of these churches, under the one banner of “Love Granbury” lavished acts of kindness Continued on Page 2
Resources Worth Your Time
Your Church is Too Small by John H. Armstrong John H. Armstrong, former pastor and founder of ACT 3 Ministries, has been a driving force in the Christian ecumenical movement. His book Your Church is Too Small is a prophetic call for unity. Armstrong lays down a biblical foundation for unity before explaining how Christians can pursue unity both in the present and Continued on Page 3
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Churches Unite for a Weekend of Kindness Continued from Page 1 around the city. The groups doing carry-out at Walmart, Brookshires, Big Lots, and David’s Supermarkets were busy, as they helped shoppers get to their vehicles under the cover of huge umbrellas. They also helped to load the groceries in the car, which the shoppers greatly appreciated. Other Love Granbury volunteers helped by drying off the shopping carts as they came back in from the parking lots so shoppers would have dry carts to use. Still others grabbed mops and started mopping up the wet floors at the store entrances. In the time that I was there, I can’t tell you how many times I heard the question, “Why are y’all doing this?” which opened up opportunities to share the good news of God’s free and unconditional love. Then we had another group pumping gas for people at several self serve gas stations around town. People appreciated being served, as Love Granbury people not only pumped their gas but also took their money inside to pay for the gas. Several other groups visited
some of the local nursing homes delivering cookies, singing for the residents, and painting fingernails for the ladies. One group even adapted to the bad weather and went and cleaned a senior citizen’s home. One of our groups brought home baked cookies to those who serve the community—the local police station, the Sheriff’s Department, the hospital, and the local fire departments. Another group had a gigantic free garage sale in order to get much needed material goods to people who had fallen on hard times. One family came in that had to sell just about everything they owned, including all of their furniture, in order to pay their bills after the husband had lost his job. They were able to get their entire house re-furnished
through the free garage sale! After all the kindness projects were completed, a bunch of soaked and soggy saints gathered back at Acton Baptist Church for lunch with food donated by a number of local eating establishments. After a great lunch, we all gathered back in the sanctuary for our closing celebration service. The Acton Baptist Student Praise Band, which had already played that day for several hours down at the town square, led us in celebration. And then we heard testimonies from each and every congregation about their kindness project(s) and how they saw God work through their servant efforts. These small acts of kindness were just that—small. But in the hands of God, we believe that people “saw” the gospel, as churches came together to demonstrate the kindness and love of God.
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Resources Worth Your Time Continued from Page 1 the future. He doesn’t waste time attacking the Church for her disunity and instead chooses to focus on searching for answers and cures for the enemy of sectarianism. Most intriguing is the section on the “missional-ecumenical” church. This is Armstrong’s ultimate vision for what he believes the church can be. He details a church that holds to the various doctrinal distinctives that make the Church diverse but that unites around the Apostles’ Creed and a heart to reach the world for Christ. This inspiring work is a wonderful reminder of the unity to which all believers are called in the person of Jesus Christ. This book serves to further the conversation surrounding church unity and, if taken seriously, could advance God’s people beyond tragic divisions and into more cooperation in the work of the kingdom. - Marcos Ortega Marcos is a student at Palmer Theological Seminary where he is pursuing his Master of Divinity. He is also the Contemporary Worship Leader at Langhorne Presbyterian
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It’s Personal Church unity is a beautiful thing. But it is also an elusive thing. That’s why when we hear about churches coming together in order to lavish Christ’s love in the community we raise our heads and take notice. We are inspired by the twenty churches in Granbury, Texas that recently linked arms and lives for a weekend to bear witness to Christ’s love in both word and deed. As I talked with Micky, the author of the article and head organizer of the annual Kindness Explosion, we both expressed the hope that such efforts would graduate from an annual event to a year-round habit.
Can you imagine if the normal posture of churches in any given community would be to be united in spreading God’s love and kindness to all, but especially the poor? The “Network” part of Word & Deed Network precisely seeks such year-round unity—linkages, fellowships and partnerships across denominational, racial, and socio-economic divides
that aim to bear witness to the gospel of peace, justice, reconciliation, and power. It takes seriously Jesus’ words, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn. 13:35). Let us commit to the practice of loving one another and loving our communities for Jesus’ sake.
Al Tizon, Director
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