LIFE Nuggets

The purpose of this blog is Essentially to Chronicle our personal faith journey and that of a place that we call LIFE House West. Why Life Nuggets? Because Nuggets bring to mind a sense of fun and enjoyment, show me a child who is sad when they get to eat chicken nuggets..... Things like life, and following Jesus should be fun and we want to explore those things in a light hearted and fun way, so please, enjoy...

Name:
Location: Hagerstown, Maryland, United States

30 years old, married, Father of four children (2 boys, 2 girls) 2 cats and 3 dogs (black lab, english bulldog, and pug)

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

When Necessary Use Words

I have been reading about Francis of Assisi. One of his famous lines is this, "preach the gospel at all times and when necessary, use words." It is in that spirit that I wanted to put out a nugget that shows how this idea will be lived out in the context of Life House West.

I believe that we must make the Gospel practical. We should be doing things that show our community that we love them and that our love and compassion for them has no agenda. For far too often the church has been doing good and expecting things in return. I believe that those days must come to an end. The radical type of love that God wants and Jesus demonstrated during his earthly ministry will lead us to demonstrate the Christ centered life in many different ways. It will change what the church calls program, what the church does and does not do. It will change budget priorities, time schedules, and measures of success. In short many things will change.

I thought it would be fun to lay out some of the ways that LHW can live this out. I am not saying that I have it all figured out. These are just some thoughts:

1. Angel Food: This is the food bank that we will be working with. People will have the ability to purchase a box of great quality food for a great price. We then as a church can bless our community by purchasing extra for those in need. I will discuss this more as the details come.

2. Glocal Sunday: We are now at a place as a church where we must take responsibility for both our community and our world. We are going to be connecting you with missions works around the world that we want to support, as well as help fund local projects. This will be the fourth Sunday of the month.

3. Tutoring: As many of you know we have been tutoring children after school for the past few months. I want to expand this through the summer and prepare for the upcoming school year.

4. Mentoring: We are now connected with Salem Avenue Elementary and can go into the school and mentor children. This is a great way to tough the life of a child.

5. Seasonal Care: Our neighborhood is filled with single moms/women and the elderly. I believe we can start to bless the community by taking care of their lawns. We are already taking care of two and this is a powerful way to serve.

These are just some of the ideas that I am putting into motion. I am praying that you may want to join our efforts to love our world by living the gospel. Come and join the revolution.

PJ

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