Our Ministry Day At KHBC
Today, Key Heights Baptist Church went outside the box. We dismissed Sunday School and morning Worship and went out into the community for the day and ministered to Perryton Texas the best we could. Once again I thank Jeff Lanningham and FBC Vernon with giving me the idea to step out and lead our church to do this.
Here is a synopsis of what we did today.
We went to our town's nursing home. We took about 10 children from our church with us and we went and hung out with the residents at the nursing home for at least two hours. The kids made crosses and gave them to each resident (46 in all). We also had about a 30 minute worship service with the residents as well. Most of our time was spent just visiting and loving on the residents there.
Our men had two "repair projects". One was to put on a new front door on a house that belonged to a single mother and her approx. 18 month old daughter. Language was a huge problem, but we were able to hang a better door on her house to help her feel more secure.
Our other "repair project" was to replace a window at a widow's house. The only problem was that the window was the wrong size. Our men caught it before the old window was taken out. They are planning on putting the new window in when the new one arrives. Because that project was shot, the went to one of our widow church ladies and repaired her fence that had been down for a year. Not in the plans but they remembered the need and dealt with it. I was proud of them for doing that.
A couple of our teenagers snuck over to our deacon's house (our only deacon) and mowed his lawn while he was out hanging the door mentioned above. They finally realized their lawn was mowed when they walked across to our celebration service tonight. They were truly blessed by our two young men of our church.
This afternoon we held a Fun Day at the park. Now realize that the wind was blowing 20-30 MPH out of the North straight from the Dakotas and the temp was in the low 50's (wind chill in the mid-30's). We cooked hot dogs, played games, and had a Bible story with them. The draw was the ID kits that we did on each kid that came by. We got their name, address, parents name, finger prints, DNA swab, weight, height, and picture. We then put all these items back in the envelope and told them to take it home to put it in a safe place. We did over 60 ID kits.
There were a lot of bumps and things did not go as smoothly as what I had hoped. It was hard to get a feel on the church family because we were busy during the day. I was eager/apprehensive for the celebration service to hear from the church family. Let's just say all my anxiety was put to rest.
Our celebration service was a very special time. We watched an 8 minute presentation/slide show of our day through pictures taken by one of our church members put to music. We were so busy we were unable to grasp what we did until we saw the pictures. Then I opened the service for people to share their impressions of the day. The number one comment was what a blessing the day was to them. Even though the weather was cool, they were blessed by being used by God. I knew it went well when two of my men could hardly speak as they shared. They felt important and used by God through the day. God reminded in special ways what they could do for Him. Our celebration service put things in perspective for me.
No one came to Jesus today, but a bunch of seeds were planted. Last week I preached on that God has invested in us. The question is what type of return are we giving on God's investment. Our people saw today that by investing themselves in others, they were allowing a return on what God has invested in them. I think it will stick for a while.
If you would like to try this at your church I'd suggest getting a hold of FBC Vernon, Texas and request their CD. They were handing them out at the BGCT Annual Convention in Amarillo and I'm sure they would love to get a copy to you.
Who knows what God has in store for us next.......... We are excited.
Edit: FBC Vernon has the material up on their website www.fbcvernon.org
Here is a synopsis of what we did today.
We went to our town's nursing home. We took about 10 children from our church with us and we went and hung out with the residents at the nursing home for at least two hours. The kids made crosses and gave them to each resident (46 in all). We also had about a 30 minute worship service with the residents as well. Most of our time was spent just visiting and loving on the residents there.
Our men had two "repair projects". One was to put on a new front door on a house that belonged to a single mother and her approx. 18 month old daughter. Language was a huge problem, but we were able to hang a better door on her house to help her feel more secure.
Our other "repair project" was to replace a window at a widow's house. The only problem was that the window was the wrong size. Our men caught it before the old window was taken out. They are planning on putting the new window in when the new one arrives. Because that project was shot, the went to one of our widow church ladies and repaired her fence that had been down for a year. Not in the plans but they remembered the need and dealt with it. I was proud of them for doing that.
A couple of our teenagers snuck over to our deacon's house (our only deacon) and mowed his lawn while he was out hanging the door mentioned above. They finally realized their lawn was mowed when they walked across to our celebration service tonight. They were truly blessed by our two young men of our church.
This afternoon we held a Fun Day at the park. Now realize that the wind was blowing 20-30 MPH out of the North straight from the Dakotas and the temp was in the low 50's (wind chill in the mid-30's). We cooked hot dogs, played games, and had a Bible story with them. The draw was the ID kits that we did on each kid that came by. We got their name, address, parents name, finger prints, DNA swab, weight, height, and picture. We then put all these items back in the envelope and told them to take it home to put it in a safe place. We did over 60 ID kits.
There were a lot of bumps and things did not go as smoothly as what I had hoped. It was hard to get a feel on the church family because we were busy during the day. I was eager/apprehensive for the celebration service to hear from the church family. Let's just say all my anxiety was put to rest.
Our celebration service was a very special time. We watched an 8 minute presentation/slide show of our day through pictures taken by one of our church members put to music. We were so busy we were unable to grasp what we did until we saw the pictures. Then I opened the service for people to share their impressions of the day. The number one comment was what a blessing the day was to them. Even though the weather was cool, they were blessed by being used by God. I knew it went well when two of my men could hardly speak as they shared. They felt important and used by God through the day. God reminded in special ways what they could do for Him. Our celebration service put things in perspective for me.
No one came to Jesus today, but a bunch of seeds were planted. Last week I preached on that God has invested in us. The question is what type of return are we giving on God's investment. Our people saw today that by investing themselves in others, they were allowing a return on what God has invested in them. I think it will stick for a while.
If you would like to try this at your church I'd suggest getting a hold of FBC Vernon, Texas and request their CD. They were handing them out at the BGCT Annual Convention in Amarillo and I'm sure they would love to get a copy to you.
Who knows what God has in store for us next.......... We are excited.
Edit: FBC Vernon has the material up on their website www.fbcvernon.org
