OA report - Week One

Week One of "A Season of Serving" started with a message about the difference between seeing people outside of the church as lost or missing. The point was that people who are termed as being "lost" have no hope of being found. They might as well be permanently absent. If we use the term "missing" instead, it lends hope and watchfulness with a desire to locate those who are missing and help them find their way "home". Text was Luke 15 - the missing sheep, the missing coin, and the prodigal son. I won't go into more details, but if you want them, let me know. The people (my self included) were challenge to make one ordinary attempt per day. The goal is to have the congregation make 2,000 attempts by the time of our special "Church in the Park" service and to see what God brings through our efforts. Forms were produced for folks to use to record their attempts and to capture how they had been doing during the week.

My first week didn't go very well. I started off okay, getting a conversation going with a couple of the checkout girls at the IGA. Just mundane stuff - looking forward to getting off of work, etc. A basic "free attention giveaway". On Wednesday the 16th, I totally crapped out. Graeme had a pee wee football game and I was surrounded with parents and people I knew a little bit, but I didn't do a single attempt. I was in a funk. I don't know if it was the start of school, the fact that Graeme wasn't getting much playing time despite this being a time for the boys to "learn" the game of football, or if I just wasn't my usual somewhat outgoing self. I totally blew many opportunities that evening. Friday I went to Wrigley Field with some friends to watch the Cubs get blown out of the water by the Cardinals (boo, hiss). On the way to my sister-in-law's house in Palatine, I had the occasion to ride the El down to the Merchandise Mart before walking over to the Ogilvie Transportation Center to catch the Metra out to Palatine. The red line was packed with people traveling after the game, then I switched to the brown line for the Mart. A family got on the brown after I did and sat by me. It was obvious that they had gone to the game too and were disappointed by the outcome. The daughter (probably 6th grade plus) was wearing a Cubs hat and remarked that the next time they came to a game, she could embellish her hat with pins like mine was and pointed out my hat to her mom (I have a Mickey Mouse in a Cubs uniform pin and a hand made cubbie bear pin from a friend). A conversation was begun - they turned out to be from Cincinnati, but while followers of the Reds, they enjoyed the Cubs too. I got a prompting to share my cubbie bear pin with the girl. I have to admit that I didn't particularly want to, but I figured that I could get another one from the person I received it from originally. So I passed it over. They were thankful for my generosity and we parted ways soon after. Call it the "Hat Pin OA". I felt better, like I might have actually followed through on what God was wanting me to do in that moment, which doesn't always happen to me. Usually, I find myself asking, "God are you sure? Really, really sure?" and the moment is gone before I am bold enough to follow through.

The stories were shared Sunday morning the 20th to let everyone know that they weren't doing it alone, but that I was working on it too and having at least as many problems following the Holy Spirit's prompting as they were. The aforementioned sheets were passed out and when I got a few of them back 27 OA's were counted. We are on our way.

I'll report more on my experiences from week two in another day or two.

Back Once Again

It's been a long time since I have posted anything to this blog. As in the past, I hope to get more consistent in doing it. Working up to a daily post if possible. So stay tuned.

A new intiative is coming to the church and we'll see how it works out. "A Season of Service" will kick off in a few weeks which will try to move we the people of FBC Arthur (including the pastor) into a different way of reaching people in our community. I know that there is nothing new under the sun, but we need to head forward with a fresh outlook.

The Season will focus around something that Jim Henderson (www.off-the-map.org) calls - ordinary attempts. Basic ways of trying to connect with the people around you. Everything from asking someone how they're doing and then actually listening to their response, praying behind people's backs, to simple acts of kindness. Just trying to ramp up the energy a bit. If ordinary things can't be done by ordinary people, they ordinarily won't get done. Jesus didn't plan on making the experience of His Kingdom so hard. We have.

So with a little faith and a lot of help on God's part, maybe we'll see an impact on our community in a subtle way. I hope to share my experiences of working to change the way that I connect with people on this blog. Keep watching for updates.

Thanks!