As we closed out our "Defining Church" series, I issued a big challenge to everyone. On May 6th, we said that we're no longer defining church as a service you attend or place you go to. Instead, we said church is Jesus guiding His people who are called out as a spiritual family to pursue His mission. At the same time, Sundays are still important because we should gather together as the church, but this changes how we view that gathering on Sundays.
In connection with this, I challenged everyone who considers Overflow to be their church family, to take a step forward and share in some of the responsibilities that take place on Sundays. When the responsibilities aren't shared properly shared by each part, certain people carry too much of the weight, and they are overworked and under-cared for. Now that we're no longer viewing "church" as a service where a few people do all the work and most people merely attend, it's essential that everyone share in the work necessary for us to gather on Sundays. However, I also clarified that sharing in the responsibilities is not the end goal for you. We believe Jesus wants you to be His disciple overflowing your faith in the rhythms of life. Helping out with these responsibilities is just part of supporting the church.
Since we've decided to not pursue a permanent building (check out previous blog posts for more on this), this means we'll always have some setup and tear down to do. The trade-off is we'll have more freedom to use our resources to bless others and spread the gospel. We're reorganizing our setup and tear down process to simplify everything as much as possible. As a result, we'll have a team of 7 people who do the setup and tear down each week: Kyle, myself, the sound tech and trailer driver for the day, and 3 scheduled volunteers. The goal I issued was that if 30 people would help fill those final 3 volunteer spots, no one would have to help with setup and tear down more than 1 time every 10 weeks! Good news... people responded, and we're right at 30. But did you respond? If not, email me (josh@theoverflowknox.com) to let me know you'll be 1 of the 30. Hey, if we get 40, it's only 1 time every 3 months! Now that's sharing the responsibility!
With the changes coming on Sunday morning starting June 3rd, I also shared how it's important to ensure that our kids volunteers don't have to volunteer more than one time each month. In order for this to happen, we challenged people to share the responsibility of loving and investing into our kids. Several people stepped up to help once each month, but again, the more people who help, the more the responsibility can be shared. Email me if you're willing to help out.
Finally, I challenged everyone to examine their financial giving. Our new format on Sunday mornings will allow us to be more in tune with the needs people may have or be aware of. I'm so excited about using even more of our resources to bless the people in our church and the people we know at our work places, neighborhoods, etc who are in need. As each person faithfully responds to give as God leads them, we'll have even more resources available to meet needs.
Perhaps you can start giving something if you haven't been giving at all. Maybe you commit to give consistently if your giving has been sporadic. Others may need to pray about tithing or increasing your giving. Giving and financial generosity is not something we want FROM you, but it's what God wants FOR you. It may seem strange, but giving is a blessing to the giver. God uses this expression of our faith to strengthen our confidence in Him. When you give, it's like you're saying to God, "I trust you as my provider."
Thank you to each person who responded on Sunday!
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