Like...

Day 4 Doxology: God has really been showing me the growth of His people lately...Maybe not in myself based on yesterday's Doxology post, but certainly in others!

Have you noticed that our youth today jumble their communication with the over-use of like?  It makes my daughters steam when I stop them mid-sentence because of their like abuse!  Today I watched many from The Summit spend their freezing-wet Saturday in service.  As I watched them run around like little worker bees I said to myself...I Like It!  If you'll noticed I used the like correctly in the sentence.

I serve two churches -Julia Street Memorial UMC , Boaz, Alabama and The Summit UMC, Albertville, Alabama separated by only a few miles.  Julia Street has for years operated a Food Pantry on the 3rd Saturday of each month (Today) as a ministry to our communities.  Sometimes we serve up to 300 plus people an average of 130 families.  Today, because of the frozen roads we only served 37 families.  In fact, we almost had more help than we had people that needed help.

The Summit UMC is a relatively new church with young families learning how to be disciples (Not that Julia Street has it figured out), but then again aren't we all?  We have a growing children's ministry with an intentional curriculum that builds on the previous year learning.  We are learning our DNA for small groups and finding how to get more and more of our families involved.   Sometimes it seems like it is harder than it should be.  We are in the process of altering our missions/ outreach team to put more of the personal heartbeat for missions/ outreach within the small groups.  We found this adds to the intimacy and connectivity of the group in service.  One of our Summit Small Groups have partnered with Julia Street and pumped life back into an exhausted ministry.  They are today's doxology as they worked tirelessly, on a frozen Saturday when most people wanted stay home, to serve both another church and people in the community in need!  It's LIKE the Church!