We went out yesterday to help a bunch of churches from the town to do some essential maintenance work on one of the poorer churches in the ghetto.
We removed the roof (so we can replace it next Saturday) and we did a whole bunch of other prep work.
Next week we plan to:
- Pour new concrete and gravel to make a parking lot for them.
- Install a sprinkler system for the grass around the building
- Finish replacing the roof
- Repaint and repair the entire exterior of the building
- paint some of the interior
- Plant new shrubs and flowers outside
- Replace all of the external doors.
- Plus…
- Do a free community car wash
- and a free BBQ!
It’s so good to serve and it’s so good to get together with other churches to do something which doesn’t help us directly but is needed in the work of the kingdom of God here in town!
I love it when the Church works together across denominational boundaries!
Peter – Your post reminds me of how lame I am when it comes to the special service for the Lord which requires handyman skills. I really, really dislike doing that kind of work. I went ahead and volunteered a couple weeks ago anyway. I'm sure the Lord was rolling on the floor, "Oh, yeah, sure Brad, I am so pleased with you. HEY GUYS! TAKE A LOOK AT THIS!" Seriously, the good work of community coming together for the kingdom is really what it's all about. Good work!
I am generally not allowed to wield a hammer or any other tool that could mess up something on the work site so I lift and carry stuff or go home and make cookies to keep the people with handyman skills sugared up and working.
I think God would personally intervene if I tried to do anything 'handy' 🙂
My pastor made a statement today about how our goal as a church shouldn't be to build our little kingdom (i.e. our church) but to build up each Christian and others' churches. And by doing that, we make the whole body of Christ stronger. And that's what our purpose should be anyway…
oh that's great. To me, helping the community is the best function of the Church and in this case, you're helping a church to better help its' surrounding community. Free food was always my favorite part of church….that and the sleeping part lol 🙂
Sometimes I miss being part of a church where I can sneak in a nap on a Sunday morning 🙂 Of course, being a house church, I can get up five minutes before people arrive and wander downstairs in my pajamas, which is almost as good 🙂
Peter – you post also reminds me of how lame Brad is. Snort! Just kidding. Our little church plant was just getting started when Hurricane Ike hit. It was horrible in a sense that so much damage was done, but wonderful because it gave us an opportunity to "be the church" as you say and get to meet our neighbors at the same time.
wow! what a list!
can y'all come over to my house next?
actually, it remindes me of a barn raising.
It is so great to get out in the community and help…not just sit it church talking about how we should!
Whoa — you took off their roof? To be replaced NEXT Sunday?? I hope it doesn't rain this week…
Yeah, we were all joking about that…. until we ran out of time.
We're actually going back Monday afternoon to cover it up because we are forecast rain this week.
Thing is, you can only do part of the roof then you have to have it inspected before you can finish it!
Very cool to see churches come together to serve
Sounds like you weren't just building up a church structure, but building up The Church. I'm smiling. I've no doubt the Lord is as well.
In England there is an organisation called Through The Roof which promotes the needs of people with disabilities in churches – particularly matters of accessibility. It was formed as a a result of the work of Joni and Friends. The name Through The Roof comes from the incident when some people got their disabled friend healed by taking the roof off and lowering him down to Jesus. Your activities remind me of that. Perhaps you shouldn't bother to replace the roof – just leave it open to the heavens so people can get direct access to the Lord. (OK don't pick me up on my doctrine or theology, I am joking).
Oh, you should have been there!
It would have been so much fun to down tools after the roof saw off and tell that to Pastor Fred!
Nice- leaving the roof off a building in Juneau wouldn’t work quite as well. There’d be way too much water damage. 🙂