Shaun Groves
All I have time to say is “Thank you!”
Thank you to everyone at St.Mark’s in Burlington, North Carolina for a great two days. And for saving 133 kids from poverty through Compassion International. And thanks to Tracy Edwards D.D.S. for Brody’s dental check-up. (Video of that coming soon.)
Nancy Tyler says:
A HUNDRED AND THIRTY THREE? St. Marks folks, you rock. That’s astounding!
n
Grovesfan says:
That is absolutely awesome! What an incredible weekend!
Beth
Scott says:
Do you think they’d be willing to share what they did to make the event so successful?
Shaun Groves says:
One difference in this weekend and others on this tour is that I was the “preacher” at their church services instead of a guy giving a concert on a Friday or Saturday at the church.
The second thing is that this church lives out what I taught already. The services this weekend were a celebration of sorts of two major happenings: 1)Some youth, on their own initiative, raised $20,000 (I think that’s the figure) for two missions organizations over seas (one of those was COmpassion International). Reps from both orgs were there at the services to thank those youth and explain to the congregation what their share of that offering actually did in their country. 2)The church staged what they called “Inside Out Weekend” where scads of church members gave up their weekend to meet physical needs in their community at 62 different project sites. They painted, fixed, cleaned, fed etc all weekend.
The church services were a way of celebrating all that had already been done and reminding the folks present that God wants that kind of good work to keep happening.
Two years ago (I think it was) I taught a seminar at Estes Park on worship and how the word never means music in the bible. I talked at length about how we as musicians in the church must downplay music and emphasize biblical worship practices – service and work, for instance.
Tracy Edwards, a volunteer musician at St.Marks, was in that seminar and we talked afterwards about worship and she said she wanted me to come teach these ideas to the musicians in her church. Yea, right, I thought. People say these things all the time and never follow through.
Tracy did.
She brought me in a year ago, I think it was, and I did a concert and shared with the music staff and all the volunteers who could come my thoughts on what biblical worship really is.
Then this past weekend they had me back to celebrate with them how well their church is now worshipping. It was a highlight of my career so far – to see stuff I sing about become reality. Tracy and the staff and all the volunteers at St.Mark’s really deserve most of the credit for this weekend’s success. They lived out the “Good News” in a way that, I think, inspired the rest of the church folks around them to do something. I was just there to suggest Compassion International as a thing to do.
Tracy says:
Thanks for all of the encouraging words, Shaun. This past weekend has been a dream of mine, and others for quite some time. When our youth raised about $85,000 (a little more than $20,000, and, with no fundraisers, really) for Compassion and 410 Bridge, it encouraged us to keep praying and planning. And, Shaun, you are one person who I know lives what they say, so it fit perfectly.
It is exciting for me to know that I attend a church that actually wants to “BE” the church and not just “DO” church. We aren’t perfect, but we are trying to maneuver this change and get back to what the church is supposed to be about.
I would be happy to help anyone who needed ideas or wanted to plan somthing similar. I have to tell you, the stories we are hearing are amazing. Now, we are brainstorming about the next step. . . that’s the hard part!!
Shaun Groves says:
85,000! Wow, I was way off. Sorry to sell your youth short.
Can you elaborate, Tracy, a little on what the church did locally in the way of service this weekend? I didn’t get to hear many details about that. I was told that there were 62 projects people participated in but I only got specifics on a handful of them.
Tracy says:
There were tons of projects that went on this weekend. Basically, agencies submitted lists of needs and then they were evaluated. Some, that couldn’t be handled easily, will be done by the church in the future. And, some people volunteered to tackle a few of the bigger things, like pave the parking lot at the homeless shelter.
Projects were done in Burlington and in Mebane, where our satellite location is. There, we meet in an elementary school gym. So, they did landscaping at the school and a huge food drive for the food bank. Other projects included painting, washing vans, landscaping, building wheelchair ramps, installing an air conditioning unit, electrical and plumbing repairs, building a fence, collecting food and basic needs, cleaning, and minor repairs.
Some of the projects were for agencies around town who help the homeless, abused, disabled, etc, but some of them were done for specific people that had been recommended.
As you probably know, the needs at many of these places are vast, but not difficult. The people who give tirelessly to them, or work there, are sometimes simply tired and overwhelmed. Taking care of some of the needs can remove the “distractions” so they can be more effective at what they do.