I Am Proud of My Church

I am so proud of my church. God is stretching us beyond our comfort zones and we are being richly blessed by Him. We may be small, but we are doing huge things for Him. All throughout Scripture God used the small in stature to accomplish great things so He would get the glory. Let me give you a quick update about how our church has been serving the community over the last few months.

• As you may know, the first weekend in May, Franklin was hit with a thousand-year flood. We have helped neighbors, families, friends and churches who were affected by the flood to recover. One church in our community had seven feet of water in their basement, and we pitched in to help with clean-up and to assist them getting into a school for their worship services while the repairs to their building were being made.

• The day before the flood hit, we helped distribute over 14,000 pounds of food to the needy in our community, feeding over 300 families.

• For the third summer in a row we have cut grass for the Hard Bargain Mount Hope Redevelopment community. Our efforts have saved this important ministry thousands of dollars.

• In June, eight of us went to Honduras to minister to thousands of people through an evangelism / medical brigade. Before the trip, we collected a bunch of medical and miscellaneous supplies to take with us. On the trip, 51 people prayed to receive Christ and another 50 people rededicated their lives to Him.

• In August, we helped distribute another 14,000 pounds of food to the needy in our community, feeding over 300 families. (We are planning another food distribution for Saturday, September 25th, and another one for Saturday, November 20th.)

• We partnered with Johnson Elementary School (the school were we hold our services) to collect school supplies. We also weeding and mulched a memorial garden at the school.

• We have helped several people get back on their feet, or over a financial hump, through our “basket-of-blessings” ministry. (There is an archived blog about what our “basket-of-blessings” is.)

• We have collected furniture and home supplies for people in need.

• Any time we have seen a need, we have done our best to help meet that need. The response to give sacrificially of time and resources has been incredible.

One of the cool things about all this to me is that our church has done all things without starting any programs. It’s all been relationship based, sensing the need around us, and then getting involved.

I am saying all this, not because we have done anything spectacular, because we haven’t. I am saying all this to give God the glory and to tell everyone that any church, regardless of size, can do something to make a difference for the kingdom of God. Pastor Rick Warren has said and written, that a church can be small and lean or big and fat. I am so thankful that we are small and lean.

And to top it all off, we have seen dozens of people come to know Christ and rededicate their lives to Him. That’s the greatest miracle of all!

To God be the glory!