Sunday Night Rejoicings

"The only thing that matters," wrote Paul in Galatians 5:6, "is faith expressing itself in love."

This weekend, at least, God's people at Cobblestone Community Church have shown themselves to be "1Thing Matters" kinda people. And, just in case I haven't mentioned it before, I love my church. I rejoice in my church. I am committed to my church. Let me tell you why.

Yesterday (Saturday) began bright and early with the InMotion Children's Ministry Fall Workshop. Children's Director Shena Ashcraft planned and pulled off a great day of fellowship and training for children's ministry volunteers. One of the sessions was Pastor Tim Tice of GracePointe Community Church in Oxford (below) teaching on How to Lead a Child to Christ. The workshop also provided an introduction to the new OverDrive format for the Fall, which I am excited to see! Thank you so much to Shena and all the volunteers who attended and pitched in for this event!

While the InMotion Workshop was going on, a group of us left The Loft for our monthly Second Saturday outreach. We headed to the two Farmers' Markets in Oxford to hand out free bottled water to the vendors and the customers. While it started in the rain (below), by the time we made it to the uptown market, the rain had disappeared and we were blessed to give away the rest of the waters (about 100 total) while enjoying beautiful September weather. Thank you so much to all the volunteers who reached out in love to our community.

By the time we made it back to The Loft, Cobblestone Women's Connection's Coupon Swap was getting underway. Guest speaker Charlotte Wood offered financial counsel while the participants snipped and swapped coupons (below). We also had a blast blessing the women in attendance with donated items we had received from Hallmark; it was like Christmas morning in September!

I was also so blessed by our volunteers Angie Abner and Debbie Stumph, who put in much time and effort Saturday afternoon cleaning the Loft with loving care! Thank you both for your work!

And then it was Sunday. The Lord's Day. Oh my. Thank you, Gary Antonius and outreach committee for brainstorming "G56 Day," and thank you Cobblestone Leadership Team for approving their plan to "close the church" and send the Church out into the community to express their faith in love. What a day this was!

It started with an inspiring, tear-inducing (for me, at least) set of worship by Under Cover (above). I've said it before, I'll say it again: you guys bless me!

After singing and giving our worship to God, we all headed out into the atrium, where stations were set up for people to join in one of ten or so outreaches that were planned for the day. I wish I had pictures, but it was delightful to see people choosing their outreach! Thanks SOOOO much to Gary and his team and all the team leaders--and EVERY volunteer--who made me so blessed and proud of Cobblestone Community Church! How I praised God to see people pouring out of the Loft, into cars, and off to outreach sites, where they conducted goody-bag giveaways on the Miami campus, Free Car Wash in Tollgate Mall....

....(actually a "$1 car wash; people think they're paying $1, but when we're done, we give THEM a dollar!)....

....along with car washes in Brookville and McGonigle, and door-to-door giveaways and a block party at Parkview Arms Apartments, where we gave away a donation of brand-new clothes we'd been given....

...and climbed trees....

and played with kids and hula hoops....

...and fixed and served free food....

...and also at the Oxford mobile home park, where we did a door-to-door goody-bag giveaway (this is just one of many teams)....

...and several teams performed cleanup tasks around the mobile home park....

...AND a cookout with games and free food...

....AND then there were two outreaches in which Cobblestone volunteers made loving visits to the residents of the Knolls and Liberty Nursing Home in Oxford....

And then, to top it all off, a Con Brio/Under Cover hybrid worship band (Con Cover? Under Brio?) and Andrew BROUGHT IT in The Third tonight, our first "Third" with professional bus service for students to and from Shriver Center!

Oh, how I praise God for a church that is "taking it to the streets," as our orange outreach shirts say. Thank you to all my brothers and sisters who made this such a beautiful weekend; YOU were the sermon this weekend! And thanks, God, for the beautiful September weather you provided (and the refreshing Saturday morning rain!).