On the Missio Dei

missio Dei off season?

There is no off-season with missio Dei. But if there were, late October would be it. The trips of summer and the week-long Salvation Army shelters of the fall have come to a close. The Christmas Village Toy Store of the holiday season and winter’s Room in the Inn have not yet gotten into full swing. And yet, Lake Forest continues to make a difference in our community and around the world.

Sure, we love when our church all works together in concert to share God’s love. But we also love when individual people within Lake Forest decide to GO FOR IT and commit themselves to caring for the least, the lost, the locked out, and the left behind. These individuals insure that the people of LFC are on the missio Dei – even when our congregational opportunities are in an “off-season.” And they inspire all of us to not simply wait for an opportunity to arise but rather to join the missio Dei by how we live.

Here is a non-exhaustive snapshot of some of the places that Lake Forest Ministry Partners serve:

* The Entire Staff of Campus Outreach Davidson, disciplining college students who will make a big impact

* Volunteer Physician at Salvation Army Center of Hope’s clinic, caring for the women and children who call the Center home

* Master Builder for Love INC (In the Name of Christ), guiding teams to build wheelchair ramps around Charlotte

* Development Director of Children’s Impact Network, caring for the fatherless of Bolivia and beyond

*Technical Team Leader of eDOT, using technology to spread God's love throughout Europe

* Executive Director of the Ada Jenkins Center, caring for the poor of North Meck and South Iredell

* Director of Rural Church Building Project, creating safe structures for churches in the Himalayans

* Leader of the Salvation Army Center of Hope’s overflow shelter program, recruiting and scheduling churches to host 12 women for a week

How will you GO FOR IT?

Just South of Hopewell

On Saturday, in a small neighborhood just south of Hopewell High School, something wonderful happened – watch as this story comes together:

Ms. Jones, an older member of this neighborhood, is home-bound because she does not have a wheelchair ramp at her home. Love INC (In the Name of Christ), LFC’s partner ministry in our community, learns of this situation and secures enough lumber to build a ramp around the back side of Ms. Jones’ home.

Love INC then assigns Dave to lead the ramp construction. Dave has served as a Master Builder for Love INC for several months and in that time has overseen a number of ramp constructions. He is also an LFC Ministry Partner.

Needing a team of people to build this larger ramp, Dave comes in contact with students from InterVarsity Davidson, a campus ministry that LFC supports. Led by a student named Brian, also an LFC Ministry Partner, Intervarsity Davidson has been looking for a way to serve in the area.

And so on Saturday, a team from InterVarsity Davidson under the direction of a LFC Ministry Partner and under the supervision of Love INC, built a ramp for Ms. Jones. It took most of the day. It was hard work. And now, every day, Ms. Jones can see and experience God’s love as she moves down the ramp that His people built.

This is not a story about Lake Forest – it is a story about the new creation. It is a story about God bringing together people from their own comfortable pockets into a larger community. And it is about that larger community sharing God’s love with the vulnerable people of God’s world.   

You don’t simply have to read this story. You can live it out. There are hurting people around you right now. You can use your actions and words to share God’s love with them. GO FOR IT!

Ashley's B'day

Ashley is one of the hundreds of kids who call Lake Forest home. Recently, she celebrated her 7th birthday. And like any average 7-year-old, she had a party with some other kids.

However, she wanted her presents to be for other people -- not for her. And so she asked that people bring art supplies to the party.

About a week ago, Ashley and her parents took the supplies to the Urban Ministry Center where homeless men and women create art as part of the Artworks 945 program.

To learn more about the Urban Ministry Center and Artworks 945, go here.

Way to go, Ashley! You have shown all of us not to just talk about Missio Dei.

Missio Dei --- JUST DO IT.

Food to Ada

LAKE FOREST --

A belated and much deserved THANK YOU for all the food you brought as part of our Easter services at Gilead and Ada Jenkins. Those who worshipped at Ada packed all of the food pantry's shopping carts, those who worshipped at Gilead packed a trailer, and team of people served by sorting and shelving the food from Easter @ Ada while another team loaded the food from Gilead and took it to Ada.

A lot of people served in various ways, and in doing so we were all able to SHARE God's love with people in a tangible way. The Loaves and Fishes pantry at Ada Jenkins will be able to offer food to the hungry of LKN because of your generosity. Thank you.

To learn more about Ada Jenkins and how you might join the Missio Dei there beyond donating food: http://www.adajenkins.org

 

Lend a Hand for Ada

This Easter, April 4, Lake Forest will offer a second worship location at one of our strategic mission partners - the Ada Jenkins Center in Davidson. Pastor of Mission Michael Flake will lead the 10am service while services on Gilead road will be at their normal time - 8, 9:30, and 11am.

Ada is a non-profit community center, providing much-needed services to residents in Lake Norman’s surrounding communities (Exits 18 – 42). Services range from medical/dental clinics to youth education to a food pantry, just to name a few. 

We encourage folks attending either service to respond to Jesus’ call to join the Missio Dei by bringing in non-perishable groceries for Ada's food pantry - Loaves and Fishes. You can drop these off at designated locations as you arrive for Easter worship.

Items currently needed at Ada:

• Canned tomatoes
• Pasta Sauce
• Spaghetti
• Dishwashing liquid
• Hygiene products (shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant, etc.)
• Canned Beans (other than pork and beans)
• Canned Fruit (other than fruit cocktail)
• Canned vegetables (corn, peas, greens)
• Detergent
• Diapers (sizes 3,4,5)

Volunteers are needed... before each Easter service (Gilead Road only) to assist with the collection. We could also use some extra help at LFC on Monday, April 5 at 3:30pm to load the food and transport it to Ada Jenkins. If you are able to share your time in this way, please email Cindy Dorman at cpdorman@roadrunner.com. Your help is greatly appreciated!

Room in the Inn

Room in the Inn is an opportunity, not an answer. It is an experience, not a solution. In short, Room in the Inn is an opportunity to experience the presence of God in a different way.

   --Charles Strobel, Founder of Room in the Inn

 
Another season of Room in the Inn is in the books. Each month December through March, we at LFC housed 24 men and women who would otherwise have slept on the streets of Charlotte. The point of each Room in the Inn evening is very simple: we want people to tangibly experience God’s love and the love of his people.

We do not solve all the problems of homelessness – or materialism for that matter – on these nights. But we do get a taste of heaven. As people from different backgrounds and different places in life eat together, laugh together, and occasionally sing together, we get a snapshot of the new creation.

 

(Larry leads everyone in "Amazing Grace")

(John 13)

(Snapshot of the New Creation)  
 
 
 

Toy Drive – MFlake’s Reflections

**IF YOU FORGOT YOUR TOYS LAST WEEKEND, BRING THEM TO THE CHURCH OFFICE THIS WEEK OR TO WORSHIP SERVICES ON SUNDAY.

**IF YOU BROUGHT TOYS ON FRIDAY OR SUNDAY, AWESOME! WE CURRENTLY HAVE 13 FULL BOXES OF TOYS.

   

With so many human needs in our world, why are we collecting toys for this Christmas? It’s a worthwhile question, which some of you might have asked. And so I’ll give you some reflections on why the Christmas Village Toy Store and Drive is a wonderful use of our collective energy and generosity:

(1) If every drive we did was a toy drive, or something similar, then we might have a problem. But we also do food and clothing drives – our next drive (in Spring 2010) will be food related. Doing a toy drive does not mean we are oblivious to human need – because we aren’t.

(2) As I’ve been out and about over the last few weeks, I’ve been reawakened to the frightening grip that materialism has on so many of us and our children. To give a toy is to challenge the reign of materialism in our lives. I am deeply grateful for kids in our congregation who have told me (in their own language) how giving toys has helped them take steps towards being generous people… generous in sharing the hope and love of God in tangible ways.

As a humorous and wonderful side story, I went to Studio 252 in October to teach about hope and introduce this Toy Store to the elementary-aged kids and their parents. The takeaway was easy: because we have hope, we give hope. As one girl realized what this meant and was challenged by her mother to give up something she really wanted in order to help someone else, my young friend responded “I really liked 252 until we started talking about this hope stuff.” She totally gets it! To truly follow Jesus will cost us something. To be transformed by the power and love of God means that we will not be the same. She is struggling with exactly the right thing!

(3) Unless we have a major cultural overhaul and it becomes non-normative for people to give gifts (often in excessive amounts) to others at Christmas, followers of Christ have a choice. We can ignore the poor who cannot give. We can buy toys and give them to the children of poor adults (a good but not the best idea). Or we can offer toys at discount to these adults. This last idea is best because it affirms the God-given dignity that Scripture says is woven into each person. It also allows parents to show their love to their children through gift giving. (When gifts are given directly from church to children, the main emphasis is the gifts. When gifts are given from parents to children, the main emphasis is the love those gifts express.)

(4) To say that collecting toys is the main point of the Christmas Village Toy Store is to lose the forest for the trees. Cultivating generosity among devout materialists is absolutely Mission of God stuff. But the central Missio Dei part of the Toy Store revolves around the tickets to the store. Only parents and families with tickets are allowed to attend the Toy Store, and particular ministries and churches in greater Charlotte are the distributors of these tickets. Churches use these tickets purposefully to strengthen relationships with certain vulnerable families. In doing so, they move closer to long-term relationship, the framework within which all spiritual and physical change is most effective.

Thanks for reading and reflecting. I love how God continues to lead us (yes, all of us) at LFC further and further into his Mission in this world.

MFlake

Christmas Village Toy Store

 

SEE THE WISH LIST 

GET MORE INFO 

 

 

Lake Forest has a great and simple way to serve over the next few weeks. This year, LFC is participating in the Christmas Village Toy Store (a partnership of 7-10 Charlotte area churches). The idea is simple: the various churches collect and reprice new toys (to 30-50% of actual price). The toys are put in the toy store (at Warehouse 242 in Charlotte). Various churches and ministries throughout the city invite vulnerable families to attend the store. These adults are then able to buy Christmas presents for their own children.

 

The whole system is awesome because it creates generosity in the givers, affirms the God-given dignity of the people who shop at the Store, and strengthens the connection between the churches/ministries and the people they give tickets to.

 

All that to say, on Nov 6 (at Studio 252) and Nov 8 (during all 3 services), we are collecting NEW toys to give to the Toy Store. We are not asking people to buy more toys than usual this year. We are encouraging people to be intentional about celebrating a simpler Christmas by choosing to give instead of receive some items. If you, your family, your neighbors, or your Community Group would like to go shopping for toys together and/or serve together by collecting toys at church, that would be great.

 

 

 

HELP -- Next Thursday

Jaye, a guest blogger and Mission Team Member, alerts us all to a wonderful upcoming opportunity to serve the people of North Mecklenburg:

Now that the India team is safely back on U.S. soil, the winds of Missio Dei at Lake Forest will be blowing in a more local direction.

 

Next Thursday at 7pm is the first public gathering of H.E.L.P. North Mecklenburg at Torrence Chapel AME Zion Church.  H.E.L.P. is a local non-partisan, broad-based organization of 48 member congregations and organizations, representing over 110,000 people in Charlotte-Mecklenburg.  Fifteen of our local congregations make up the North Mecklenburg Sponsoring Committee.  H.E.L.P. works to bring together, train and organize the communities of Charlotte-Mecklenburg across all religious, racial, ethnic, class and neighborhood lines for the public good.

 

The North Mecklenburg group has been working the past 18 months to unite the individual faith communities in the towns of Huntersville, Cornelius and Davidson to work together in purpose and mission, to identify local justice issues and cross multi-faith, multi-cultural, and multi-generational as well as geographic boundary lines to solve social and economic problems.  The meeting on Thursday, October 29^th at 7:00 pm will be a culmination of many months of surveying the community, listening to the concerns of our neighbors, carefully researching and identifying potential issues and determining if there are places that we can work together to resolve the problems that face the residents of the tri-town area.

 

At a time when there seems to be so much division in our country, H.E.L.P. provides an opportunity for the faith community to pull together and direct our combined energy to those who may be calling quietly from outside our respective church walls.

 

It would be great if we had several Lake Forest folks on hand at this assembly to not only support this mission, but to put faith in action right here in our community.  If you can join us next Thursday, please confirm by email to missions@lakeforest.org.

 

 

Theology Made Easy

Yesterday, we said "goodbye" to the women who had stayed in our church for the past week. We hope that it will only be a temporary goodbye -- that the women will continue attending LFC and/or will stay in contact with people who served at the shelter. One of the women wrote this on her comment card this Sunday:

I love this Church and the members I have met.  Everyone has been so very kind and generous to me.  Thank you.

Way to go, Lake Forest! On the last night of the shelter, a Community Group (including a slew of kids) came to serve and eat dinner. Several of the kids made these placemats for every guest:

 

"God loves you. I love you too!" Being missionaries of God's love means that we proclaim the first sentence and live out the second sentence. Thanks to Emily for the clearest statement of missional theology in LFC history! And so we celebrate:

--The kids of LFC living on God's mission 

--Chantelle getting a job on Sunday

--Nancy being accepted in a YWCA residential program

--Faith Liberation Church, Asbury United Methodist Church, and Clinton Chapel AME Zion Church (celebrating 200 years next November)...all of whom partnered with LFC this past week to serve meals to the women staying with us

--The many people who served at our shelter for the first time this past week

--The continued intertwining of the lives of people at LFC and of the most vulnerable people in our city.

And yet there is still much about our lives, our city, and our world to lament. We will do that together starting this Sunday.