Fuzzy Love

I really like this photo. It shows the front portion from one of our Mt. Vernon Group Workcamp worship gatherings. That night over 350 voices were joined to celebrate what God was doing in the community and in their lives. The picture is a bit fuzzy and blurry. And as the week after Workcamp starts, I am aware that my own memories are becoming like this photo. Filled with hope and love... but getting fuzzy and blurry.

How do we maintain that mountain top experience?

I think part of the answer is "Don't stop." Whatever you were doing in that moment, don't stop doing it! Now, we can't have a year-long workcamp going on in our community, but we can continue to find ways to express this love that God has for all. For me, the workcamp brought three essential elements:

1) The community received love from God through the people of God. As Christians, we should continually seek ways to be the hands and hearts of Christ, reaching out to the community. For some people, it has been a long time since they saw the people of God sharing God's love with them. We want to blame them for not coming to church, but why aren't we blaming ourselves for not going to them more often?

2) Ministry opportunities were created for the local body of Christ. In our church, over 95% of the regular attenders were involved in this ministry... 95%!!!! That is phenomenal. The key was generating a host of ways for people to contribute (applications, site selection, material deliveries, handing out drinks, prayer team, snack coordination, delivering groceries, taking tours to encourage workers, etc.). We tried so hard to create opportunities for all. Other ministries of the church could use that same attitude.

3) The greater body of Christ was connected to the ministry. We were able to involve multiple churches, local foundations/organizations, our presbytery, Group Workcamps Foundation and people from over 10 different states in attending the workcamp. We may not be able to regularly attract outside groups to come to our town, but we can use the resources of regional and national ministry organizations so that we do not continually reinvent the wheel. Also, why don't we partner with other service clubs to do Christ's work? They may be shy, but if we can make it easy for them to participate, they are often looking for ways to have effective community impacts.

Well, I better go look at a few more photos... try to hold on to the fuzzy memories of God's love. And then, we'll start looking for ways to participate in a few more new memories.