Serving Together

Amy and her husband were new to their church and, quite frankly, new to life as believers as well. But their church had made serving together–as a way of sharing the good news of the gospel–part of the regular rhythms and expressions of their body. Amy, although a bit hesitant, finally just “did it” and signed up her entire family to participate in one of the service opportunities.  This particular time, the church was serving at a local homeless shelter. The church had established a relationship with the shelter, routinely partnering with them to set up and make the beds, cook, and serve dinner. Amy...Read more …

The idea of serving people in order to communicate God’s grace is hardly novel. “Bringing the whole gospel to the whole person” marks both contemporary missional churches and longstanding mission organizations. Yet, if we limit ourselves to serving people in order to demonstrate God’s love for them, we may be ignoring an even more loving, relational, authentic and dynamic approach–serving together with people who believe differently. Together Together is the key word. The dynamic changes when people do something together; the rules change when you are in relationship. Consider John’s story: When I was in grade school, I played multiple...Read more …

Here’s a radio-minute that aired nationally this week on Q Place’s Walk the Way: This is Walk the Way, brought to you by Q Place. I’m Jeff Klein.                Michelle goes to our church and is an active part of our worship team. Her boyfriend, Kyle, doesn’t know the Lord. But even though he’s still sorting through his beliefs, we want Michelle to know that Kyle is welcome – that he belongs, even though he’s still somewhat skeptical of faith. This behavior – allowing someone to feel comfortable and part of the community – has always...Read more …

This is Walk the Way, brought to you by Q Place, I’m Jeff Klein. And I’m Pam Klein. A friend of ours put it this way: “The best witness isn’t telling people concepts about God. The best witness of the Gospel happens when people see people sticking up for those who are nameless, voiceless, or powerless. Every Jesus follower should be an activist, an abolitionist or at least an advocate. And every Christian community should find something to make a ruckus about together…if you live horizontally, people will look vertically to God.” We love this! How’s your “horizontal living?” Are you...Read more …

Marshall McLuhan was one of the most influential communication theorists of the 20th Century. Regarding media, he coined the phrase “the medium is the message.” But what exactly did he mean by that? Medium A medium is a vehicle through which something is communicated or conveyed. Television is one way to communicate a message and twitter is another. McLuhan’s theory purported that the means or medium of communication was intimately related to how its message would be perceived and that the way a message was communicated was as important as the message itself. For example, there would be a difference in perception of the same...Read more …

This is Walk the Way, I’m Jeff Klein. And I’m Pam Klein. When 2 single moms from our church needed affordable housing but literally nothing was available after months of searching, God provided a miracle: Landlord John permitted both gals to sign leases in two of his units at rents they could afford. WOW! In exchange, all he requested was that our church would collectively assume the responsibility for regular maintenance issues like lawn mowing, leaf raking and snow shoveling. He lives out of town and this stuff is hard to manage long distance. We, of course, obliged. When we...Read more …

In several memorable scenes throughout the Gospels, Jesus asked people to participate with him in the work he was doing, even though they did not yet understand who he was. He asked wedding servants to fill thirty-gallon pots with water when the wine had run out. He asked a Samaritan woman, in the heat of the day, to give him a drink from a well. He told a lame man to carry his mat, a blind man to go wash clay from his eyes, and mourners to remove a stone from a cave and unwrap the dead man who came out...Read more …

This is Walk the Way. Brought to you by Q Place. I’m Jeff Klein. And I’m Pam Klein. Yonas is a friend from our church. Originally a refugee from Ethiopia, when Yonas first arrived, his neighbor, Johannes, welcomed him and walked alongside him. Yonas talks about how important Johannes was in his life, giving Johannes credit for leading him to Christ. Just recently, Johannes died, leaving his wife Zemzem behind. Yonas wanted to help this man who’d helped him in so many ways and offered to help Zemzem with some outside house maintenance.  Our church family had the privilege of...Read more …

Dr. Brian Howell, an anthropology professor at Wheaton College and author of the book Short-term Mission: An Ethnography of Christian Travel Narrative and Experience, says that the single greatest benefit of the service experience (a.k.a. short term mission) is reaped by those who are serving, not by the person or organization being served. In an interview with Christianity Today, Howell said this: “There’s poverty out there, and we should do something about it because we’re Christians. We’ve traditionally thought of missions as evangelism, but now we’re thinking about missions more as serving, caring, and giving. We’re going to do something. But...Read more …