And Now, Something a Little Different

Though the heat is still on in Phoenix, summer break is over for my family and we are already moving on. This week two of my daughters started school, one of my daughters started volleyball camp, and we now have two boys fresh out of the foster care system living with us. (By the way, last night I had the super fun privilege of telling them the story of David and Goliath, which they had never heard before. Woohoo!)

 As you and your peeps get back into town, school, work, or doing the same thing you did all summer, I want to let you know about something coming soon that I hope will be a grand endeavor for our church family. For the last two Autumns we have called everyone who is a part of the Living Streams family to come together on Wednesday Nights for a season of connection and community. It has been wonderful to see hundreds of people respond and come together for some food, friendship, and spiritual growth. 
 
This Autumn we are sending the same call out, but we have something a little different in mind. We want to see the same hundreds of people come together, but instead of focusing on our own spiritual growth, we will go out to help someone else’s spiritual growth. (There is some irony in this, because, often, helping others' spiritual growth will actually cause your own spiritual growth.)
 
To make this happen, we have identified 20+ ministries in Phoenix that currently exist to bring the goodness of Jesus into some part of our society's pain. We want to get hundreds of people from our church organized into smaller teams to join forces with these ministries for 6 weeks from September 19 to October 24. The way I picture it is that we will be like platelets and white blood cells bringing healing to the wounds in our society. (There is irony in this also, because it is often in bringing healing to others that we find our own healing.)
 
Now, some of you might be saying to yourself, “It's scary just to show up to church. How much scarier must it be to go out and be the church!”

Well, that is where we come in. I promise that, if you can muster the courage to show up, everything else will be taken care of and set up for you.

We will be talking about this in the coming weeks at church. We will have a lot of clear information coming your way. So, save the dates on your calendar: Wednesday nights September 19 through October 24. And stay tuned for more information!
 
David