Spring/Summer Speed-up?
You know how it's said that church slows down during the spring and summer as people take holidays and enjoy the nice weather. Well, it doesn't seem to be the case yet for us. Jeff is working on preparing the 1st session of Alpha for tonight (keep praying that God's hand will be bringing those He wants) which means for the next 13 weeks Tuesday nights are fun and exciting. The Pastor's wife keeps going too through the spring and summer.
Right now I am working on taking pictures of everyone that regularly attends for a photo directory. For a church that has fairly transient attenders, a photo directory will help establish a core community.
Community seems to be key. What is community? Did God create us to be people for community? How do you really develop community within a church? or with the surrounding neighborhood? Well, another lady & myself are planning on helping establish a more solid community within the church. We are calling it "Guess Who's Coming for Dinner" The idea is that people sign up to either host or be hosted for a Saturday meal & we arrange where people will go. Both parties don't know who's coming or where they are going until they arrive or get there. It will stretch people & encourage people to develop community. I feel that developing relationships that are only seen during Sunday morning are okay, however, inviting people into your home takes that relationship to a much deeper level - a level that we should be striving for. A co-dependency, a vulnerability, a reliability, an accountablity, an openness & trusting of others. All these are needed. God created us to have these relationships - to not be secluded, uninvolved, in a home that the garage door mouth opens to let the car out in the a.m. & back in the p.m., with the curtains closed the full day. Let's encourage each other to be open & inviting. To develop relationships & community. To put people & their needs first.
Just some thoughts that are motivating me with doing the photo directory & "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"
Feel free to comment. And thank-you 'dm' for the last encouraging comment.
All our love & prayers to you who support & uphold us.
Ashlee
posted by Jeffrey and Ashlee Thomas @ 11:48 a.m.
5 comments
5 Comments:
Hey there sweetie! I have finally found my way onto your blog. That's saying something since I am the most technically challenged person in our household.
I just wanted to let you know how encouraged I am Ashlee to see what a Godly wife and encourager you are to the man God has blessed you with. I am also encouraged to see how you have embraced your community with your heart.
Our mission field truly is just outside our front door.
Keeping you in my prayers.
I like the blog. I am confused about "guess who's coming to dinner". The Host's don't know who is coming for dinner? What about food allergies? I would be scared to not know in advance. Wow you must have some trusting people in your church. That is cool I can not wait to read how it turns out.
So what happened with the "guess who's coming to dinner"? Have you had it yet? Did it go over well? What did people thing? I would love to put something like that together with young marrieds in our church - and then maybe have them all gather at the same place for dessert or something like that. Let us know how it went.
Shar
Mrs. Summerhayes, I love you dearly. All your cards & encouragements are so uplifting! And I'm glad you're now 'online'. It is so true that the mission field is outside our front doors. Everything we do, everywhere we go, we are in a mission being ambassadors.
Boomy & Shar, my appologies for the bit of confusion. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is on Saturday May 26th. Another lady & I are getting all the registrations & will be putting hosts with guests a few days before. On the cards there is also a spot to write food allergies. We will contact the hosts to let them know a couple days in advance how many adults/children are coming and if there are any food allergies. We will also contact the guests to let them know the address & phone number of where they are going. I supposs they can always just check online who is registered to the number and it doesn't really matter if they do know or not. This will just be an opportunity to get to know someone better. We are specifically putting people together that are not really close friends so it will be a community-growing experience - an opportunity to make more friendships and connections outside of their 'circle'.
And if you are wondering, yes, Jeff & I are involved too.
Hope this clarrifies a bit of my miscommunication :)
Ashlee.
The "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" event went great! I'm one of the members of Home Church, and my wife and I loved going to a "mystery" house for dinner last Saturday night. We had no idea who we were meeting until the host opened the door. It turned out to be people we've met, but don't know very well.
Over the course of the evening, we found out all sorts of interesting things about the people we were meeting with that we never would have learned otherwise. We shared an awesome meal, too. I can definitely say that we felt more connected afterwards, and it will give us more reason to go talk with that couple on Sunday morning.
I definitely think we should do this event again. Thanks so much, Ashlee and Erin, for organizing it!
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