Here is a quick recipe for some delicious egg sandwiches. (Note, these are very bad for you, so you may want to do this after running a marathon or before a week of strenuous exercise)
Ingredients
1 egg
2 strips of bacon
2 pieces of bread
1 slice of cheese
butter
cream cheese
Toast the bread. Put butter on one slice, and cream cheese on the other. Cook the bacon. Place it on the cream cheese side of bread. Fry one egg. After flipping the egg, place the cheese on the egg to melt the cheese. After the yolk is cooked to your preference, remove the egg and place it on top of the bacon. Build your sandwich and enjoy. (If you need more, just make two like me)
Now, I know most of you didn't come here for an egg sandwich recipe, but I just had two and Robin had one and I had to share the joy.
A couple things I have been thinking about this week (and I have a lot of time with no job or activities other than football). Robin and I visited a local church here on Tuesday night. Great time for church. There were definitely some things we liked about the church, and a few we didn't like. I think they probably have an excellent church, but here is my critique. We wouldn't know that just by going to their worship service.
Now, I am like most of you and think that church is a lot more than worship services. I think small groups will be central to us being the church God wants us to be. But, the fact remains that there are people who will just walk in off the street. Robin and I walked in off the street, and we had no idea if this was a friendly church, a rude church or an indifferent church. We didn't know if anyone cared if we were there or not.
I understand we want people to connect at small groups or whatever we call them. But, I want people that come to our worship services to leave our service knowing what we are all about. I want people to come in and feel like we want them to come back. How do we do this? I have some ideas, but I want to hear from you all first. So my question, how do we convey to people that just come to worship services what we are all about? If we are a tight community, how do we show people that they can be important too? Which people have to take part in this? How do we help people that may just come off the street be comfortable? How do we make sure we don't miss people?
Its ok if you can't or don't have the time to answer all of those, but I would like some feedback on what we as the core of Refuge can do initially to help be that kind of church. Please keep us in your prayers, Robin has an interview this week, and sometimes I feel like no one will ever want to interview me. God has helped us thus far, and I don't see him letting us drop, but I'm praying that he might help us sooner rather than later. We are so excited to see you all, come visit if you want, and I am excited with what God will do through us in this city!
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3 comments:
People are the key. This is of course simple and something we all already have an idea about, but I do not think can be over-stated. As I imagine these situations unfolding, it seems necessary that our ratio of people intentionally engaging newcomers always be manageable. Of course we cannot control the number of newcomers, but I think it is safe to expect smaller numbers at first and then large, which is really what we want probably (for just this reason). What I foresee is as people are folded in they are encouraged and empowered to fold others in. We can accomplish this by giving everyone ownership and responsibility within the church. I'm sure as you guys read this, it sounds like everything you've ever been taught about discipleship, which it is, but I really want to be cautious about any ideas that promote programs over people. I have been to alot of churches with tons of people and really nice expensive things that felt really lonely. I don't recall ever feeling more home at a church than when I visited Rochelle with Brian, and that was once. So we include others and we openly include each other in whatever we are doing. I don't know if it takes much more than that.
Also, some delcious variations everyone can try are substituting an everything bagel for regular bread and using ham for the meat.
Well said Grant. I'm not sure that it could be said any better than how you said it. As long as we are intentional and deliberate in our actions and making sure that everyone is spoken to, I think we can achieve that "home" like feeling that we want for Refuge. Geeze that was a long run on sentence. That's probably really going to bug Chris. Sorry!
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