GO!
June 8, 2010
Go and find the lost. Go serve those who society leaves behind. Go beyond your comfort zone and your own borders. Go and not just talk about, but truly demonstrate, Christ. To the lost. The sick. The broken. The weary. The tired. The one who keeps wanting but is never fulfilled.
“Go!” Boldly and with compassion.
Growing up in a UCC church in a small town it always struck me as odd that we would gather in our Sunday best in the church to sing antiquated songs with lyrics like “doth thou thath wrought” and I remember telling my grandpa as we were leaving one Sunday how I didn’t feel any different or know any more walking out of that church than when I walked in. That feeling of sameness bothered me greatly because I had learned early on in Sunday school about a compassionate and powerful Jesus who healed the sick, comforted the grieving and brought people back from death, but yet, this church it didn’t feel “alive” at all. Something was very wrong here. I knew in my heart there had to be more than this. No, this couldn’t be it. To walk in the doors every Sunday at 10:15, smile at the people, parrot some phrases with the congregation, sing some songs and try to stay awake during the sermon while daydreaming which NFL teams were playing on TV later that day.
My world shifted in 2000 when I came upon the Vineyard in Cincinnati. It was an early fall Saturday and I had been using The Vineyard parking lot as a shortcut to get to work. New in town, I was looking for a new church to join and decided if I was going to use their parking lot, I could at least see what they had to offer. To my shock and amazement, when I walked through the doors they had a huge “ServeFest” going on with at least a dozen outreaches, everything from a Coke outreach to a free car wash to a nursing home visitation, even a bathroom cleaning outreach. All to serve the people outside the church walls to let them know God loves them. It was incredible. This…this is what I had been looking for all my life. This is what I knew Jesus would be about today. This was “Go!”
So how does that snippet of my life fit into the Vineyard core mission? I hope it dovetails nicely. To reach out to people who are broken and heading down the wrong road at a breakneck speed stop so they can experience God to find a more fulfilling, peaceful path. To team up with those who used to want for only for themselves, but now want to serve in the name of something greater than self. To “Go!” and serve in the name of Christ.
Someone once said, “Christianity at its simplest form is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread”. And through the history of the Vineyard movement and at VCC that’s what we’re all about. Now for sure, with a membership as large as VCC, there are people all over the spectrum in regards of serving. But it’s the culture of service and slipping on the dusty sandals of Christ for even a moment to a stranger, a co-worker or the cashier at a Taco Bell, it’s a force of a million light touches of love to demonstrate to people, sometimes on the worst day of their life, that there is a God, He is alive and well, and He loves you so much he would rather go to Hell alone than to be in Heaven without you.
“Go!” It’s the key core value that started with the Vineyard back from its inception and still holds true today. And it’s not just a suggestion from Christ, but a command, “Go and make fishers of men!” It’s pretty much what drives me to help lead with the LA La Viña outreach and when volunteering for Breathe or any of the other programs VCC puts on to reach out to the lost and serve those who live on “the fringe”.
And the best part is I can leave from any service or outreach at VCC and know I am changed, that I have learned something to put into practice that coming week and the weeks to come. And walk out with an attitude that’s focused on Christ so I can do what He asked us all to do in his name. ”Go!”
- Brian G.
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