Oh yeah, we need some of this

The whole idea for this week's message "All the Lonely People" is to point out that community centered on Jesus beats any other community by a mile. Jesus' family wasn't immune from weirdness and dysfunction. That cousin of his - yeah the one who wore the weird clothes and ate .. organically - he'd liven up any get together. And his brothers, the ones who were going to Baker Act him... took them a long time to get on board with the "I'm the Messiah" idea. So stay tuned Sunday and we'll try to help with some Biblical insight.

But as far as family dysfunction goes, the holidays are the absolute best crucible for a mess. Fortunately, today I found the cure.

Learning To Grow

It was Thanksgiving weekend after all, and I knew we'd have people scattered all over. In a community where almost everyone is from somewhere else, I wondered just what a weekend we would have.

Saturday's church sanctuary decoration certainly didn't bode well for a great weekend at New Hope. Despite two emails and two separate times to help offered, only 6 people total came to help. Where was everybody?

Well it turns out that more was going on than just decorating the church. Two of our church members were at the emergency room! I knew nothing about it until this morning because our deacons handled it all.

Part of me was concerned that I was being shut out of congregational care, and that I was missing opportunities to minister to people I care for. But I know that if we are to grow from an extended family sized church to a church beyond that, I must decrease and they (others who care and are equipped to serve) must increase. But I will ask to be notified next time.

Deacons doing caring ministry... what is up at New Hope? BIG GRIN