Shaun Groves
Folks in St. Joseph, Missouri decided to “not just have church but be church” to their community. They created something called St. Joe Serve. St. Joe Serve is…
A cooperative effort of the Christian churches of St. Joseph, Missouri to show the love of Jesus Christ in a visible manner. It is out hope that through these efforts we may build bridges with our communities, government, schools and other churches in order to become the source that St. Joseph looks to when in need of assistance.
The more than twenty churches involved, worked together, canceled their church services this past weekend and met across the city to worship God by serving their neighbors. They painted, fed, swept, organized, built and much more – worshiping with their work.
Then also took up an offering and gave it to organizations in their community that are doing God’s will on earth as it’s done in heaven – organizations like a crisis pregnancy center. The large check the center received will go toward training staff to use a sonogram machine, because 90% of mothers who see her their child on that little screen will not abort them. That’s doing something about abortion, not just voting against it.
This could easily be a one day a year thing for St.Joseph but I heard more than one leader encouraging the crowd to make it an everyday thing. I played a concert at the end of the weekend for the whole community and gave them the chance to save lives in the third world. They saved twelve. I hung out with pastors in the greenroom before the show and in the lobby afterwards and watched pastors hug each other, laugh together, and got the sense that these guys were actually friends. I’m hopeful that St.Joseph woke up this morning, the weekend behind them, and kept the service going in their neighborhood, schools and offices. I’m hopeful that T.V.s will be turned off and neighbors will be met, empty church space will be converted into clinics and food pantries and job training facilities, and every boss and employee will see opportunities to repair what’s broken around them everyday.
This should give every critic of the American Church hope. This kind of thing happens. It’s rare but it happens. And when it does it’s inspiring.
What good stuff is happening in your church? How could you be part of fixing what’s broken in your community? Does your church work with other churches? Does your pastor work with other pastors in your city? What are the churches in your town doing together that they can’t do as well separately? Tell us about it.
John Stickley says:
Thanks again for coming to St. Joe to wrap up a great day with a great message and great music. Your testimony about living life with passion to truly make a difference for Christ was phenomenal, and what you shared about Compassion International really touched my heart (particularly as I listened while holding my own daughter on my lap).
I’m hopeful that there are many more than the twelve that committed on Sunday that will be sending in their packets yet this week, that they too might get the blessing of rescuing a child and becoming involved in their life.
Cristy says:
THIS is what we did recently at our church.
My family did general clean up/manual labor, demo interior, prep for rehab and repair fire damamge on a church that is preparing room for an after-school program for inner-city youth. That was one day, half day really. But we are going to continue regularly with this program as they need help coaching sports teams and teaching art classes for these kids.
emma says:
This fills me with so much hope…
I’ve been involved in similar things for a number of years, the most recent being Spark . It’s been wonderful to hear stories at the end of Spark of churches making this a monthly thing, individuals making it a weekly thing, and so forth. People catching the vision…!
Becky says:
So, so cool! I want to be a part of an effort like this.
Somehow, though, I can’t see the churches in Colorado Springs banding together like this. I’m moving to St. Joseph.
Shaun Groves says:
Why don’t you try to do something like this, Becky and let us know how it goes.
Erin Maynor says:
Hey Shaun…Thanks for sharing about your experience in St. Jo. What a beautuful example of what Christ’s church is supposed to look like…we are called to be His hands and His feet, and to live in community with those who don’t believe…in order to point them to the One true God! I love that the pastors were willing to work collectively with each other…since as Christians we are on the same team anyway..right!!! So often today people get so wrapped up un “my church” “your church” and forget what the purpose of the church is….I would love to see that happen here in Charlotte, NC..thanks so much for sharing….
Shaun Groves says:
What can you do to make that happen, Erin?
Erin Maynor says:
As a church, we have done numerous community events, but haven’t partnered up with other churches…not because we don’t want to….just that they have been in small neighborhoods and didn’t require an extreme amount of people! I’m going to have my pastors visit you blog to read about what happened in St. Joe. I hope that it will be the catalyst that inspires them to work collectively with other churches to reach our community and BE the church! I’ll keep you posted!
In Him,
Erin
team building exercises says:
As professionals and skilled workers they function in established institutions or new undertakings, still holding to their original vision seeking to serve the needs of others and to witness to the great love of God.