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One of the great things we heard about at the Change the World conference was something that a minister in NC does.

Some Sundays, the congregation comes in for a worship service only to be given a map and told to leave. The minister sets up something out in the community ahead of time, but doesn’t tell anyone. She gives a very short worship service, then they leave, to serve. I think she said the first time, it was picking collard greens for a food pantry.

“Some of them think I’m kinda crazy,” she admitted. Rev Tony burst out, “I think you’re AWESOME!”

Not everyone can do it, of course. Some are infirm, or have little babies. But most do. That first Sunday, 190 people came to church, and 120 went out to serve. Not a bad percentage, in my estimation.

Harvey Carey talks about how many churches just stay in the huddle all the time. Says it would be like going to a football game, and the players just huddle …. then go inside at the half … then come out and huddle some more.

It’s time we leave the huddle and get into the game. 

He whose wisdom is more abundant than his works, to what is his like? To a tree whose branches are abundant but whose roots are few; and the wind comes and uproots it and overturns it (as it is written, “He shall be like a tamerisk in the desert and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness”). But he whose works are more abundant than his wisdom, to what is he like? To a tree whose branches are few but whose roots are many; so that even if all the winds in the world come and blow against it, it cannot be stirred from its place (as it is written, “He shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out his roots by the river, and shall not fear when heat cometh, and his leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit”).
—Mishnah Aboth, 3:18 (with Jeremiah 17:6, 8)