PRACTICAL LOVE (on Thanksgiving Day)

Just a few quick thoughts on why I'm eating Thanksgiving dinner outside, under a big tent, in the parking lot of the College Cinema with a bunch of friends, and a whole bunch of people I've never met before:

1. A couple of years ago (even though I love being with family) I was officially done sitting around a fancy table with fancy dishes and fancy food (getting fatter) in a private celebration, while so many others were doing without.  You don't have to agree with that, just saying that's how I felt.
2. Knowing how good the experience sitting around a table with 10 people is, I kept thinking how cool it would be to sit around a table with 100 or 1000 other people.  (In fairness, back in the day before I got saved, I always figured if one beer was good, then 12 beers must be really good.  I'm just wired that way).
3. I never wanted to just "go to church" in the neighborhood in which we're located.  Somehow, I think it's better to "be the church" in the neighborhood in which we're located.
4. Thanksgiving is a great day to get together with other folks.  Most people are available.  Most people are off work.  Most people are hungry for a good hot meal.  Most people have a sense of what Thanksgiving is all about.  Most people find themselves being thankful for something, even those with the least to be thankful for.  I want to be right where those "most people" are.
5. It's a great opportunity to reach IN to our community with practical love.
6. I'm not remotely concerned about "accidentally" giving a free meal to someone who wouldn't go to work if you paid them.
7. I'm incredibly concerned that the church in general looks completely irrelevant to the community that surrounds Crossroads.  I think we should work to change that perception.
8. For the past two years, little kids from the neighborhood come to Crossroads on Sunday morning because they know the can get donuts.  I am well aware of the fact that those donuts may be the only thing they some of those children eat that day.
9. Jesus said to feed hungry people.
10. Jesus said to be merciful, just like our hevenly Father is merciful.  

Look, this is about more than just giving people "free food".  This is an opportunity to really connect and LOVE our neighbors.  Over the past couple of years we've done a block party for the neighborhood, passed out backpacks to kids going back to school, and provided Christmas stockings for neighborhood children.  This event gives us the opportunity to build on that foundation of service and caring.  My dream is, that in the years to come, those young people growing up in the neighborhood would experience life change as a result of their encounter with Christ followers who are following Christ in word AND deed.  That in the years to come, they would choose to raise their families at Crossroads, and spend their time serving in the very community they grew up in, because they experienced first-hand what a difference it made to them.

Come and serve.  Bring food to the Annex this week from the list.  It will make a HUGE difference in the life of someone else.