We are having a challenge at church to quit "going" to church and "Be the church". God gave me this new idea to reach out. It is employee appreciation. I made certificates and bought gift cards for two people who really make my life easier. Ones name is Jo Ann and she works at Rise N Shine Donuts where I get donuts every Sunday for church. She is awesome. She has a great smile and always has my donuts ready when I get there. The other one is Melissa from Kinkos where we get our bulliten printed every week. She goes the extra mile for me! When I took Melissa hers she yelled out to the other workers "I've been recognized!" That really hit me because all of us have that in common. We want to be recognized. It was so easy to recognize her. I believe if we will take the time and make the opportunity to recognize people like Jesus did, we really will be the church. Sometimes going to church is not that exciting but being the church is an adventure that never stops!
I have one more story about being the church. About 8 years ago when we were at Church on the Rock I led an outreach with my Ladies Bible Study and we made Christmas gift baskets and Valentine's gifts for the strippers at Players. It was awesome. Myself, my mother and Dee Lewis made the drops but we only got to leave the gifts with a manager when the club was closed. I never knew if it had any affect on anyone there. Last week I heard that in the process of some people going door to door from Church on the Rock that one of the strippers answered the door and said that she would never forget the ladies bringing her a gift basket.
At the time it was amazing all of the comments I got from people at church who could not believe that I was going there. I think differently, I believe that we must bring Jesus to the people because most of them will not step inside the doors of our church before we do.
