Today is the 39th blog. Today is also Good Friday. As a church the Foundry hasn't always done events well. We have always had problems connecting people to the next event or getting them to come through the doors of the church. We have tried several techniques of meeting the same people, talking to the same people, inviting folks from the same area, having the same type of events that attracted people the first time. They have not always worked.
This week we have finally have some success in connecting people to our programs. One person in particular, was the campus safety guard at Widener who was posted at the corner of fraternity row which was next to the Lathem Hall which was where we had our Redemption program. He spent a majority of his time that night listening to our program, and watching the presentations. He connected with us and we connected with him.
Today we had our annual Good Friday Easter Egg Hunt in Hepford Park. . This event brought about a hundred or more families, (I am not sure if anyone actually counted). It was an amazing event with photos, 1800 plastic eggs, and the Chic-fil-a cow. We had invited the Security Guard, John, to bring his son and family to join us and this morning he showed up.
Well this afternoon we had a movie and a lunch. We invited the kids that came to the Easter Egg Hunt to come to the movie. We had lunch provided by Chic-Fil-a, and the movie was Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie. We had about 50 people including kids, families, and students. Among this conglomeration of people was John our Campus Safety friend and his family.
Easter Sunday we are having a pancake breakfast and worship. We invited John and family to join us. Let us hope he comes.
There are a lot of things we can do to affect and minister to the community. We can do a big event every now and then. We can provide occasional blessings for them, and we can have minor contact with them, but these are only dressings of the wounds of life, or just casual contact. These may reach people eventually and plant seeds of truth and love, but it is in the everyday and more than casual contact that we actually reach people. It is about forming friendships and community. The church was built by Jesus and his Disciples in friendship and relationship. The people Paul reached were done through relationship. We have to make true and lasting connections with people. We have to go to where people are and invite them into our family and our lives. That is what we are doing with LOGOS, and what we are doing with John. We will continue to try to do this with the rest of the community.
I pray that we will learn from our successes and our failures.
Shalom
Hair
The Theolobster
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