BEYOND THEM AND US

BEYOND THEM AND US: www.loveloganville.org

When a new church comes to town, the people in established churches can easily feel threatened.  Many ask, "Why do we need a new church?"  Others may think, "What's wrong with my church?"  Some may even be embarrassed to experience feelings of "This is my turf, why don't they stay away?"  Such thoughts may not be holy, but they are natural.  Respecting our unique differences while working together to share the Good News of Jesus with others is something that each new church/established church can strive to achieve. 

Working together?  What?  Can that really happen?  Every new church pastor expresses deep gratitude to a system that encourages and financially supports new works, but every new church pastor also experiences disappointment from established church members somewhere along the way.  Every existing church wants to be alive and dynamic in ministry and mission, but every existing church also wrestles with feelings of anxiety and jealously if a new church is successful in their back yard.  The existing church pastor may think, "That new church is going to steal some of my best folks, especially the young ones.  And why do they get thousands of dollars in conference support when our ministry is just as valuable and should also be supported."  The new church pastor thinks, "If I had those facilities and that budget I could win the world for Jesus, but I'm stuck in a school with meager giving, and the existing church up the road is cheering for my failure.”

Is this connectional ministry, and if so, how do we get past those kinds of thoughts? It won't happen with back room conversations, resolutions at annual conference, nice articles on the conference web site, or by some sort of formalized top down effort.  It'll happen because local churches chose to work together to reach the community. Maybe not all the time, but sometimes. 

Love Loganville was started by The Orchard Church in 2008.  Love Loganville is simple.  It's followers of Jesus stepping outside of their church walls to bring God's love to the streets of Loganville.  It's about dozens of churches joining together on one special day to do more than any one church could do alone. It's about love, God's love. . . illustrated through practical acts of service and kindness.  The Participating Churches range from 3 years old to 100 years old.  On this special day we are working together. . .  and in the process we learn to trust each other, and to communicate to the least, lost, and lonely in Loganville that there is a God bigger than an institution, a calling bigger than any  single church, and savior who loves beyond any denominational label or theological distinctive.   

On March 21, 2009, 450 people gave away cokes and bottled water, washed cars, brought breakfast to fire and police officers, gave away gift bags to local clerks, cleaned the grounds of every school in the city limits, and visited local nursing homes.  The Orchard Explorers group (1st-5th graders) participated by giving away packs of gum at a local soccer complex.  The Oasis Church hosted the opening worship service, and Gracepointe Nazarence hosted the closing worship service.  Loganville First Methodist, First Baptist and the newest church plants in town reached out to their community  together. 

Love Loganville is a community-wide effort to illustrate God's love to people who do not attend any church.  Twelve churches (new churches, existing churches, mainline churches, and charismatic churches) are already on board and the mission team at The Orchard is praying for 36.  Check it out at www.LoveLoganville.org. 

It works for several reasons:
1. Every church, no matter how big or small, new or old, is equally represented at the effort.
2. The event is funded by the offering at the Loganville Multi-Church Thanksgiving Celebration which also serves as a catalyst for church involvement.
3. The advertising in the community directs people to a website with links to all of the participating churches.
4. The website is designed primarily to speak to unchurched people.  It is not an organizational tool for the Participating Churches.
5. Churches can reach out in ways that are natural to their existing ministries as long as the outreach is intended to "illustrate God's love with practical acts of service and kindness."

Maybe a new church can start something like this in their community to build trust with existing churches.  Maybe an existing church can start something like this in their community to communicate to new churches that they want them to be successful for the sake of The Kingdom.

By: Ben Cathey

The Orchard UMC