If the Mt. Juliet church of Christ were to close its doors tomorrow, would the community even notice? That question is one that has been asked several times already and will continue to be asked as we try to be more externally focused in 2009. We have a tremendous responsibility to serve God where He has planted us, and He has planted us in a community that is growing every day, giving us an incredible opportunity to change thousands of lives.
The question then becomes, "How?". How do we reach out in a city that already has so many churches? How do we change lives when many people are so jaded by Christianity? How can we even begin to know where to start when we're limited by space, resources, and time? The only way to answer these questions is to go back to the theme we have chosen for this year: with God we can!
Each month we will have very unique opportunities to serve the community in some way. Most all of these will involve service with "no strings attached", meaning that we will demonstrate kindness, gratitude, and compassion for the express purpose of modeling the love of Christ. These service opportunities are designed for the entire congregation. We want everyone to find a place to serve as we reach out this year.
We will kick off our year of outreach on Wednesday, January 21st with our "Serving Servants Breakfast". This breakfast will run from 7:00-9:00 Wednesday morning and will give us an opportunity to show gratitude to our city's public servants (police, fire, ambulance, public works, parks, etc.). These men and women do so much to make our community a better place, and we want to take a day to thank and encourage them. We'll need people to help with cooking, serving food and drinks, greeting, cleaning, set-up, and in several other areas. We hope many will want to be a part of this special day!
One new tool that began this week is our new online newsletter--
The Connection. This newsletter, sent via email, will serve as a way to communicate about upcoming events and service opportunities. If you received The Connection this week, you probably did so because you indicated on your SOS Input form that you were interesting in receiving information through email. If you did not receive The Connection and would like to in the future, please send an email to jp@mtjuliet.org and you will be added.