A Fusion Of Real Needs And Real Love

On Sunday, there was a green insert in the bulletins detailing a few of the different service opportunities that exist for our congregation to show God's love to our Jackson community. You'll be hearing more about this in the coming weeks, but this is something that's going to be staying in the bulletins every week.

The immediate vision for our church is to trigger a dramatic reaction between our neighbors and Christ in a fusion of real needs and real love. This menu of service opportunities is one way to help us accomplish that. Here's an overview of what it contains:

Habitat For Humanity (contact Taryn Barlow)

• Clerical/Inventory/Cashier volunteers
• Delivering lunches to Habitat builders
• Phones/Office volunteers

Jackson Medical Care Facility (contact Jane Wagner)

• Helping seniors with bingo, crafts, games
• Sewing, polishing fingernails for residents
• Helping with outings
• Ice cream socials, birthday parties

Grace On Wheels (contact Sande Ratliff, Connie Gray)

• Providing transportation for people without a car who need to get to an appointment or to the store

Bundles For Babies (Contact Sande Ratliff, Connie Gray)

• Delivering supplies for needy parents

Kids Hope USA (Contact Janet Courtney)

• Providing weekly mentoring for at-risk children enrolled at Flora List Elementary School

Share 'n' Care (Contact Janet Courtney)

• A pantry closet operated by our church. Immediate needs include: Baby food, baby formula, baby cereal, diapers. Drop items off in the box in the lobby

A couple other opportunities will be coming this summer with Habitat for Humanity and Lazy B Ranch.

The idea is to get out beyond ourselves, to carry the light of Christ into our community. This is the kind of thing that Jesus did, and encouraged us to do as his followers--direct engagement with people, and direct investment in their lives, no strings attached.

Some of you may be familiar with "The 5 Love Languages" by Gary Chapman. The idea of the book is that different people have different ways that they understand how to communicate and how to receive love. It can be a real problem in families where different members don't all speak the same "love language." For instance, a lady craves quality time, but she's married to a husband who equates love with giving gifts. The wife appreciates the gifts fine enough, but they don't make her feel loved and cherished. The husband is frustrated because no matter how many gifts he gives her, she's not happy. They're both trying to give and receive love, but they speak different love languages.

Well, Jesus has a love language too. But it's not any of the five. The love language of Jesus is... (are you ready?)...

People.

We love Jesus by loving people. That's it. It's hard, it's messy, it can be exasperating. People can be unappreciative, unreceptive, and uncooperative. But Jesus still wants us to stay in the game. We aren't allowed to ever give up on people. That's why we've developed this vision for our church. We want to love Jesus by loving the people that he's placed around us.