"Egg"-cellent Start

As Todd has mentioned, our core group had been reading through the book of Luke. Even though many of us have read Luke many times before, it seems that God has opened our eyes as though it is our first time reading the words. As we have read about Jesus' ministry, I personally have learned that Jesus desires that we, as His followers, be a people that are involved in our community. Jesus did not sit at the synagogue and operate programs to attract people to himself. Jesus went. He was out in His community. He knew people and people knew Him. He was aware of the needs of the people around Him.

I have been challenged as I read Luke that I have failed in this area for most of my life. There have been periods of time that I have been out trying to know the needs and ministering to the people around me, but those times have been concentrated efforts while on a mission trip. During my journey through Luke, I have been convicted and convinced that Jesus desires that His followers be involved in their community. He desires that I look around me, where I live, and find those to whom I can minister. But most importantly, He desires me to live life with the people around me. I have been convinced that Jesus does not want me to hold up inside of a church but to get out, live life, and have relationships with those around me.

I have said all of this to introduce you to my first efforts. Our core group decided that we wanted to get to know people around us. We hosted our first "outreach effort" in our neighborhood through an Easter Egg Hunt. We were praying for good weather so our neighbors would come out and join us, and God provided sun. We also were praying that God would bless our efforts and provide neighbors to find the eggs that we hid. He did. We had ten-fold our children's ministry of 4. That means that God answered our prayers and over 40 people were in attendance. It was so much fun. We all had the opportunity to introduce ourselves to our neighbors. We had the opportunity to live life with them by watching our kids run through the grass to find eggs. We had a chance to build relationships.

What an excellent start to trying to be more like Christ. What an excellent start to becoming more involved in our community. Now at least more people are familiar with us and we with them. If you are joining us in prayer for this effort please pray for future opportunities to interact with our community. I am excited and can't wait to see how else God will bless our efforts. May we and our baby church be pleasing to Him. And may we never just "do church" but may we always "live church".