If you’ve walked through the Fellowship Hall hallway, you’ve seen the tables and the sign-up sheets. A QR code taped to a poster. A volunteer standing there with a smile, hoping you’ll stop to learn a little more about how you can plug into mission and ministry at Pittman Park.
We’re calling our week-long Ministry Fair “God is Here,” and this Sunday, September 20, is the last day. If you’ve been meaning to stop in and haven’t, don’t miss your opportunity to drop in before or between services. Or fill out the survey on the back of your connection card this week to let us know where you’re interested in serving.
I want to tell you why this matters, and it has to do with something I’ve noticed across my ministry. People rarely fall in love with a church by sitting in a pew. They fall in love with a church by serving God in and through the church, whether it’s folding tables in the fellowship hall, or in the cab of a truck on the way to deliver food, or standing in a kitchen on a Wednesday plating meals for Open Table. Sunday mornings are where we gather. It’s the center of everything we do, and I wouldn’t trade it. But it isn’t usually where you get known and connected, or where you build deep relationships with others and with Christ.
Paul knew this. Throughout his ministry he used the body to describe the nature and function of the church. Paul says, “From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Ephesians 4:16). That last part is important. Every part does its work. Everyone’s gifts offered. Everyone’s hands open. Every heart given to the mission of making disciples and transforming the world. Every part.
Which means there’s a place for you to share your giftedness with God’s kingdom, a place with your name on it. Not a slot we need filled, but a place to exercise your God-given gifts. Somewhere your heart and hands and history fit into what God is already doing here.
And God is doing something here! We are alive together in Christ, and God is allowing us to bless and serve in some profound ways. Whether it’s through our international ministry, our children’s and youth programming, our missions, prayer, and worship, God is here, and he’s inviting us to find our place in his work. Our tagline for our ministry fair is “God is here; find your place to plug in,” and that order matters. We’re not asking you to make something happen. We’re asking you to join what’s happening, what God is already doing, where the Spirit is already moving.
So come by the tables in the Fellowship Hall this Sunday. Ask questions. Tell whoever’s standing there that you’re not sure what you’d be good at, and let them help you figure it out.
And if you want to take another step toward plugging into Pittman Park, then mark down Saturday, October 3, from 8:30 a.m. until noon. That’s our Church Work Day. Bring gloves if you have them. Our Trustees are putting the project list together now, and there’s a little of everything on it: landscaping, painting, cleaning, the kind of work that keeps a seventy-year-old campus standing. You don’t need a skill. You don’t need to sign up for anything permanent. You just need three hours and a willingness to serve.
Some of the best conversations I’ve had at this church happened while I was working with others, toiling together towards a common goal (even if it was just moving bricks or weeding flowerbeds). Maybe that’s how it’s meant to work: as we serve Christ and one another, we deepen our relationships and grow together into the body of Christ.
God bless,
Jonathan Smith
For Jesus. For People. For Community.