WestCoast Challenge: Cooperation

In April, Sunday Bethel Romanian celebrated their 10th anniversary.  As I drove into the parking lot I began to notice a number of license plates from Washington State.  Then a small bus full of young people arrived with a lot of laughter.  They had driven from Tacoma to celebrate a birthday of a sister church.  They made a three-hour drive for a four-hour celebration!  The food was great, the singing was inspiring, the Word was proclaimed but what challenged me the most were the hugs at the door, in the sanctuary and around the table.  The immigrants were family and they probably got home very tired but on their face was a smile.

Remember they are our brothers and sisters.

One of the key marks of the early church was fellowship and the breaking of bread together.  There is something about family that seems closest when we gather around a table and share a meal.  The issues of the day are discussed and the relationships are reconnected after the chaos of daily living.  Some have said that church planting is a lonely place.  I want to encourage the churches of our association to band together to build a powerful fellowship that breaks bread together on a regular basis.  What if every church in our association looked to the closest plant or church and made a commitment to make sure that church/plant would know there is another congregation down the road that loves them and believes in them.  What if three banded together to care for each other?

Some things you could do:

• Pray weekly for each other.
• Help each other when the work could be made a bit easier and a bit better by just one extra hand (like Sports Camps, Christmas Celebrations, Community festivals, VBS, cleanup efforts or myriad of other service opportunities).
• Celebrate the birthdays of each church together.
• Put together a joint Volleyball team for the WBA picnic on August 1^st the summer.
• Plan a joint meal together.
• Just make a call to say we are thinking about you.

Remember they are our brothers and sisters.