Daily Dose of the Word of God - Beyond Sunday Ep. 90

Jeff Klein, Pastor of Outreach

Transcript

Jeff Klein  0:07

 
Welcome to Elmhurst CRC's Daily Dose of the Word of God. It's Monday, May 26th and this is Jeff Klein with your weekly reminder to take your faith Beyond Sunday and into the week.

Jeff Klein 0:17  

A few years ago, I led a retreat for a church in Yakima, Washington. Yakima is located about 2 hours East of Seattle and is called called the hops capital of the world (at least, that's what they told me). The church has been around for years and was trying to figure out how to engage the people around them in meaningful ways. Frankly, the church was slowly dying as we were getting ready to begin the retreat. We were all gathered in this "Life Center Room" and the side door next to the parking lot kept opening. People kept peeking in - I assumed that they were looking to come to the retreat, but they weren't. Instead, these are parents from the neighborhood who have their kids at the church for childcare each day. The crazy thing was no one in the room seemed to know any of them, except for the new church plant pastor, who has only been there for a few months at the church. This guy noticed them, welcomed them, called them by name, and invited them to stay for dinner. At some point, having childcare for the community at the church was an outreach idea. Why in the world are we having a retreat about outreach, but not even talking to the people who were coming to our door every day? Outreach was at their door, and no one noticed.

Jeff Klein  1:27  

Jesus modeled this for us by the way he lived. As he ran into people that interrupted his travels, he saw these moments as sacred and entered in. For example, the woman at the well, the woman who grabbed his cloak with the bleed, Zacchaeus in a tree, the blind man along the side of the road, etc. What about you? Who's coming to your door every day that needs you to pay attention? Who needs you to notice and to engage? It's possible that that person might need the Jesus that you know.

Jeff Klein 2:05  

Let's pray. Jesus, help us to open our eyes and be aware of the people that you are placing in front of us each and every day. Help us Lord - not to just walk by - to actually engage and see if there's something you have for us in those encounters. In your name Jesus, we pray, amen.