Service Sunday

Today was dubbed "Service Sunday" by my church in Brooklyn Park, MN. For the past few weeks they've been promoting today, May 24th, as a day to get out into the community and be the hands and feet of Jesus. As a congregation, we've been challenged by our pastor to sign up for one of a good dozen service projects to help. This morning during the morning service, pastor Ivan spoke on what it means to be a servant and to bear the name of Christ. He challenged us to pick up our crosses daily to follow God's calling to be the body of Christ on earth. Emily and I hadn't signed up for any specific project, but were fully planning on being involved in things. We lulled a bit after service, talking to friends and hanging out, trying to find out where we were needed most. We threw ideas around for doing our own outreach and service: go spend time at a soup kitchen,s how up at a random home and offer to do chores and yard work, or do "the puzzle" (a skit that the Edinbrook youth have done quite a bit in the past). But we eventually found that we were needed to hand out sack lunches that were being prepared for the homeless and for random people. We headed down toward Elliot park on 14th street in Minneapolis, near North Central University. Emily, Jillian Cross, Sarah Slegh and myself spent a good hour in Elliot park handing meals and snacks to a few homeless people and a few random people. Susan was a resident of the nursing home across the street from the park. She was the sweetest little lady, reading a book about Frank Lloyd Wright, ironically (who was born in my hometown of Racine, WI). She is fighting off a brain tumor, which hasn't grown since September of 2008. Emily and I were able to chat with her about her life, family, and fight against diabetes and cancer. We concluded by praying for her and leaving her with a bottle of water. It seemed as though she was right with God. After our time in Elliot Park we headed towards the Target Center. There we found a slew of homeless people seemingly living as a small community. We quickly unloaded the rest of our bagged meals and snacks, and spent some time talking to others in the area. Our efforts handing out meals and praying with people is small in the grand scheme of things, but the effort put forth by Edinbrook Church to make "Service Sunday" happen is a great model for the Church. Too often churches are comfortable and complacent where they are. Edinbrook seems to be making an effort to break free from that attack by Satan of comfort and contentment. Among the other service projects were boxing food for "Feed My Starving Children", a group spending time at a local nursing home, youth picking up trash around the community, and a few others i cannot remember. I hope that the concept of organized service and mission work in our own backyards will catch on in the Church and we'll strive to be the hands and feet of Jesus the way he calls us to. James 2:14- "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?"