Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Come to Us or Go to Them?

Elkhart County Unemployment at 18.3%. (Elkhart County is home to NMC)
Lagrange County Unemployment at 18%. (Lagrange County is home to NLF)

So, people should be running to our worship services, crying out to God in this time of need, right? Well, I'm not convinced they are. Our average attendance shows a slight decrease during this time. I don't know what all the factors are in that, but it has made me think, Is this the time for the church to say to those in need, "Come to us," or is it time for the church to say to itself, "Let's go to them."

Thanks to Feed the Children, we were able to see both those things happen yesterday at NMC. The churches in this community went out to 400 families in need, handed out vouchers for a week's worth of food, and those families came into our parking lot and picked up those boxes yesterday.

This happened in locations all around the county yesterday. It was especially exciting to watch at NMC as members of our NO GREEN BEANS initiative served as the volunteers to hand out this food. Those in the NO GREEN BEANS initiative are unemployed/underemployed, and are volunteering their extra time to serve.

Here's NBC News story about the activity in the county yesterday...


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My friend got me a ticket from her church for this food from Feed the Children. I was surprised to find that the majority of the items in my boxes was make up and lotions and Avon perfumes and not food. I am not complaining because every little bit will help but I thought it was odd there was not much food.

Anonymous said...

but the men did pray with me when I picked it up.