Feed The First State
The series Fringe Benefits has challenged all of us to live a life of selflessness and experience the unexpected value of helping someone else. That challenge is why we’ve begun Feed the First State. We don’t want to be all talk–we want to put feet on our words and we want to help provide food to people who are hungry. Here are the statistics:
-The Food Bank of Delaware provides emergency food for an estimated 241,600 different people annually.
-44% of the members of households served by The Food Bank of Delaware are children under 18 years old.
Through partnering with The Food Bank of Delaware, we’re going to help alleviate hunger in our community!
Here’s how you can be a part: If you’re in a Life Group, do all you can to make sure your party is a success! If you’re not in a Life Group, here’s how you can be a part:
- Go to this link to see when and where various Feed The First State parties will be happening in our community and drop off your cans of food.
- Stop by The Journey this Saturday (June 25th) anytime between 3-5pm to drop off your cans of food.
When we gather again on Sunday, we’ll celebrate how many cans we collected and how many people we’ll be able to feed as a result. Plus…we have a surprise.
“When you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop. 10 It is the same with your grape crop-do not strip every last bunch of grapes from the vines, and do not pick up the grapes that fall to the ground. Leave them for the poor and the foreigners living among you. I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19)
On the journey with you,
Pastor Andrew
::Andrew Wilson is the Connecting Pastor of The Journey
Rethink Possible
AT&T has a new marketing campaign titled “Rethink Possible”. On their site is a little intro video type thing that explains this. Here is what it says: Expand your boundaries of can. See what’s on the other side of to far. Play the angel’s advocate. Outsmart can’t. Put a restriction on your limits and expect to be wowed. Explore. Try. Do. Because before it could be done, it couldn’t. These are indeed amazing times. Rethink Possible. I love it. We can argue all day long about what cell phone company has the best coverage, lowest rates and least dropped calls but that is not what this is about. AT&T is trying to get the consumer to think outside the box and think about what can be.
The church is no different. For years there was a certain way to do church. Hymnals, KJV, Sunday’s best. Long talks that lacked application but were full of information. Then people started to “rethink possible.” Churches started adding musicians and became relevant and progressive. People wore whatever they wanted to church. Other versions of the Bible were taught. People started inviting their neighbors. Talks were shortened and people were challenged. Life groups and community began to happen. People began to think missionally. Satellite churches were launched and multi-site campuses became the norm. Churches became portable and met in theaters, schools coffee shops and some churches actually double as a business. Internet campuses were formed and community was developed through social networks like Twitter and facebook.
How we do things today will not be the way they are done in 5 years or even 3 years. Culture is changing and the church must adapt without losing it’s true identity. No it’s identity is not in song selections, clothing and versions but instead in what it is doing to connect people to the very core of it all…Jesus. All the bells and whistles do not replace the work of the Holy Spirit in an individuals life. So as culture moves so must the church and so must we as individuals who make up the church. There are people who would be willing to listen if they could understand what we are saying, not in our words but in our actions. Live out your faith today and “rethink possible.”
Weekend Wrap-Up Late Edition
I can’t believe all that happened this weekend. I so don’t deserve all that God has been blessing me with lately. I love students and their families and want the absolute best for them. I am so encouraged to work for a church who makes teenagers a priority instead of using them for any other reason. I have the greatest youth staff anywhere in the Northeast, I know others say they do, but they are lying…trust me. I have a phenomenal church staff that put in so many hours to make our weekend a success.
This weekend we launched our student version of “Hostage” and it was incredible. Students telling me about their anger, their pain, their heartache. So many things that would shock most of you but have become a regular occurrence for me dealing with youth culture. I heard that UNITED was better than camp, that the worship was insane, incredible, unbelievable and as good as the original. What a credit to Donny and the Praise Ninjas, yes that is our student band name. They did awesome. God gave me the words to say and lives were changed because of it. Last I heard we had 10 students receive Christ and 1 parent. God is Awesome!
The room itself is simply another tool to allow us to reach teens for Christ. So many times I’ve been to conferences and seen the stage and wished that was us or have been to large youth groups or seen them on video and wished that was us…I walked out Saturday night saying, “that is us.” Other youth departments will be looking at our building and program as the standard for youth ministry in the Delaware Valley.
Our life groups were awesome because we have such good leaders. They were excited and filled with passion as we experienced our best numbers yet and saw students getting real with bitterness. Can’t wait to see what God has in store for our team and our students.
Also a special thanks to all who blessed my family with our weekend getaway. I don’t know who to exactly thank so I thank all of you. It was much appreciated. Just know there were so many people who were behind the scenes that made this vision come to be…make sure you thank them as well.
