As every Christian has heard, the church is the Body of Christ. That means we embody Jesus in this
world. We are his hands, legs, mouth,
eyes, and ears. Just like Jesus we utilize
the senses of the body to listen to and observe the needs of our local community. Our legs carry the spoken words of hope
to the people around us. Our
hands lift up the broken-hearted and bring a healing Touch to the lives of people in
the name of Jesus.
You are all familiar with our service ministries: to homeless
families with Family Promise, to the hungry with Emily’s Pantry, and to those in prison
through Kairos. These faithful efforts
are bearing fruit and fulfilling God’s call to serve Christ in all persons.
All Saints is working to extend its name into the local
community in new ways. Years ago I
attended a conference on ministry. The
lecturer asked the question, “If your church no longer existed would the
community notice?”
So I asked that question of us. Today, the answer is, “Yes. People would
notice!” And I believe God is calling us
to open up our resources in ways that our local community will really notice.
You are aware of the need to replace our current piano. We discovered recently that it has a cracked
pin block. It is becoming increasing
difficult for this instrument to stay in tune and lead our praises. So we are acting now to raise funds for a new
piano that will last one hundred years.
Our July 6 Jazz Festival will raise a portion of the funds
but the majority of the cost will come from donations. A high quality instrument will enable us to
invite community members into our church through concerts and recitals which
gives us an opportunity for invitations to our parish family.
A second way we are trying to become more visible locally is through a community garden. We are working with our Montessori and ESL/.GED school
friends to begin the process. It
will be a place that will beautify our property and make it useful. We have the land; the community provides the
effort. You may even want to help
out! As this opportunity grows, we’ll see new faces and have the opportunity to invite them into our parish
family.
A third initiative started in prayer three years ago. I asked God, “How can we make better use of
our back property for children and families?” Through our ESL program we met
someone who is creating a youth sports academy. He will be focusing on tennis and soccer.
Through negotiations and donations with the city contractors,
we are working to reshape our property to get it ready for children and youth
to play on it. Donations toward this
effort are welcome. Again these efforts
will present opportunities to invite our guests to be a part of the All Saints
family.
Through these efforts we are living into the mission and
values of the All Saints family. As we
continue to walk this path, your invitations to our guests will be the same as Jesus touching lives!
And you will see the Kingdom
of God grow in your life
and in the life of our parish family! Consider how you will support these efforts with your donations and your time.
