Running has been a theme in many areas of my life the past couple of weeks. My kids have started their cross country season, so our schedule is filled with practices, meets, and lots of conversation about running and running techniques. Then this past Sunday evening we started a new series at The Gathering on Jonah, a prophet who begins his story by running as fast and as far away from God as he can. In contrast to Jonah, this got me thinking about all the ways that our church “runs” towards God in our ministries and actions.
Last Saturday, our church community ran towards God by serving our neighbors on Good Neighbor Day. The people of Glenn spread out all over Atlanta to share love in many different ways. One group went to the Center for Hard to Recycle Materials (CHaRM) and learned how to care for God’s creation better and helped that organization do the good work of recycling items that many of us wouldn’t even know were able to be recycled. Two other groups went to sing and play games with some of the seniors in our community. Some of our youngest Glenn members had the chance to sing “We Are The Church” with some of our oldest Glenn members as a wonderful reminder that we are all the people of God.
Since most of us don’t have the capability to run to Texas and Florida to help with the hurricane recoveries, we also had a group of people get together to pack Flood Buckets for the United Methodist Committee on Relief to take as they do the work of cleaning up in the aftermath of Harvey and Irma. This was not the original plan for Good Neighbor Day, but Glenn people saw a need and restructured to make sure we could meet it. In a short amount of time they were able to collect items to fill 57 complete buckets. Add this to the money collected during the communion offering on September 3 and Glenn really stepped up in response to these hurricanes (you can still donate at umcor.org).
Add to these those that served refugees, worked at food pantries, sorted medical supplies, cleaned up creeks, and held a field day for our friends from Action Ministries and you get a picture of the heart and soul of Glenn, a people who are committed to running into our community to serve where God is calling us. Thanks to all who participated in Good Neighbor Day and to this church for its continued work in sharing the love of Christ with all who need it.
Brent