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A Natural Connection
Love Feast
Although Capitol City Christian Church (Boise, Idaho) once averaged only seven families on a Sunday, today the revitalized church ministers to a growing urban congregation and partners with other organizations, like the City Light Home for Women and Children, to make a difference in the city.
“City Light is a Christian shelter and substance-abuse facility for women and children in downtown Boise, and our church is also downtown,” says Jane Freund, a member and volunteer leader at Capitol City. “It was a natural connection.”
A few years ago this connection led to creation of a “Love Luncheon” for the City Light residents, held each winter after the donations and attention from the holidays have passed. Church members prepare and serve the meal, lead worship, organize testimonies from City Light residents, fill gift bags, and even provide child care.
Although the Love Luncheon is sponsored by Capitol City’s women’s ministry, the event leaders welcome participation from men, as well.
“Many of the ladies in this shelter have suffered abuse of some kind, so it’s helpful for them to see men serving and participating in positive ways,” Freund says. “We also include our teenagers so they experience ministry to others.”
Capitol City views the outreach as more than one annual event; they invite the City Light residents to mother/daughter nights and retreats and also volunteer at the shelter during the year.
“We don’t think about what it would really be like to fight an addiction or escape a bad situation,” Freund says. “This ministry allows us to share with them and for them to share with each other.”
www.capitolcitychristian.org
Needs to Know
When the team at LifePointe Christian Church (Charlotte, North Carolina) presented a series discussing the impact of our lives on other people, they realized making a difference in the community must start in the church body.
So after one sermon in the series, lead pastor Matt McGue directed each person to share a need.
“We sit at tables instead of in rows, with an offering basket in the middle of each table,” says Bill Altman, discipleship pastor. “Under each basket we placed cards reading, ‘Right now what I need is . . .’ and we asked each person to answer that sentence with a spiritual, physical, or relational need.”
The following weekend, LifePointe challenged members to meet some of the tangible needs from the cards.
“At the end of the service, Matt said, ‘Here are some of the needs shared last week. Let’s try to take care of them all by the end of the day,’” says Altman.
The needs ranged from the relatively small—clothes for two toddlers, homework tutoring—to the very large.
“One woman needed a car so she could get to work and school,” says Altman. “That morning a woman brought the title to her car and gave it away.”
Every need was met by the end of first service.
“At second service all we could do was tell people about it!” Altman says.
The special morning prompted other spontaneous acts of generosity among church members, including one small group that donated $700 and bought a used car for another struggling family.
“Our church is only three years old, and it’s been pretty cool to see a young church begin seriously working to meet one another’s needs,” Altman says. “We want to keep that challenge before our people.”
www.lifepointecc.com
Granting Help
In 2003 Bryan Sisson established The Antioch Foundation to advance Restoration Movement missionary work. The nonprofit organization has already granted money to many mission organizations, including Ghana Christian Mission, Shiloh Christian Children’s Ranch, and Polish Christian Ministries.
The foundation also gives awards to early, mid-, and late-career missionaries for exceptional service on the mission field, and funds scholarships for college students with its “Restoration Heritage” award.
The foundation plans to raise $1 million by 2010 to establish a financial base for even more impact.
To download grant and scholarship applications, nominate a missionary for award consideration, or give to the fund-raising campaign, visit www.antiochfoundation.org.
Jennifer Taylor, one of CHRISTIAN STANDARD's contributing editors, lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
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