A Ministry Center...

I always knew it would and have been casting the vision for any building we buy to become a ministry center. Well, true to form, this awesome congregation that I serve as Pastor, has taken it's first step toward that dream becoming a reality....

One of the ministries that is dear to our hearts is the "the least of these". Over the years we have done significant ministry with homeless brothers and sisters in our community. Now that we have a building, we can do more....

We have not yet settled on the building, but we have already locked in a date to be part of the Community Emergency Shelter Program (CESP) for this year. That means that we will host homeless men for a week in our facility... giving them a warm meal, a warm place to sleep, breakfast in the a.m. and a bag lunch. This shelter takes place in the coldest months of the year when area churches open their facilities to our brothers. (In additon to this, I am involved with a team of people from area churches and the community who are working to address the causes of homelessness in our communtiy.)

We have supported this effort in ways we could without a building... but NOW we can go to a new level... because our building is too small to house all of the expected 80 men, we will join forces with our neighbors, Bethany Lutheran Church, whose property adjoins ours.

The neat thing about that is that CESP needed to find more churches, I knew ours would be one new one... so, I said we would do a week and said I would get Bethany on board if I could! When I called my friend, Kevin Wackett, the pastor there, his response to my question about partnering was, "we had already decided to host this year, but didn't know who to call." Now isn't that God! AWESOME!

No surprises here! God is AWESOME and we are looking forward to forming a great partnership with Bethany Lutheran in ministering to our community. What a GREAT God we serve and what a GREAT group of people Community of Joy is!