Inspiring

I once read about a very small congregation where all the members were seniors. There were no active children or youth, young adults or even middle aged folks, but there were a handful of older members who wanted to do something. They felt God was calling them to some kind of ministry, but what? What could they do?

As I recall the story, their church was right across the street from a local public school. One of the members apparently had a conversation with a teacher or the principal, and became aware of a problem, which they translated to mean an opportunity. It seems that many of the children who attended the school were having trouble with their school work. Their parents were working, and there was no one to help them with their homework. Some were falling behind. Consequently, this group of seniors decided to start a homework club as an after school program. Every day when school got out, students who were approved by the school would come across the street and get help with their homework for an hour or two before they went home.

It is a story I still find inspiring. Here was a dedicated group of people that might have thought they had done their part. They could have felt justified had they simply decided to stay home and watch TV. Being disciples, however, they sensed the call of the Spirit to do something more, so they did. Awesome!

I thought of that story again this week after I read of another congregation that is attempting something different; a congregation that has few children and hasn’t held a Vacation Bible School for twenty-five years! Having discovered there are “hundreds of kids living right next door” to the church, they have decided to try something new. Praise God!

You can read all about it at Peace Camp. I hope you are inspired.

By the way, this is the latest entry from the Peace Blog, which we introduced you to a few days ago with a lovely post called Is God Real? You might want to subscribe to the Peace Blog and follow it yourself. These guys are trying to do great stuff!

Posted by Carman