Community Impact Day - The Why

July 24, 2018

This coming Sunday, July 29, we set aside the whole day to serve our community: hair cuts, changing oil for single moms, helping and building ramps for senior adults, helping schools get ready for the fall, helping our communities be clean and look great, and so much more.

“Why Community Impact Day (CID)? Specifically, why do we shut down church services and go out to serve?” No doubt you have asked this question or someone has asked you. Here’s why I champion and fully participate in this endeavor:

Jesus gave His purpose in life—He said, “I came to serve, not to be served.” He is saying, “Hey, I am here to serve.” Have you said that lately?

Here is what I believe: Everybody wants to be known as a servant, but very few are happy when they are treated like a servant. Yet, one of the best ways we express our love to God is through serving others. It’s one of the highest and best ways God says we worship Him. Yet, I have heard of some of our people not participating in CID, basically saying, “I am going to go to another church so I can worship.”

However, Romans 12:1 says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”

Paul is saying, “Give God your body so that He can use it to bless others through you.”

Jesus said it like this: “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). He even talks about the smallest of deeds—something anyone could do: “If anyone offers a cup of cold water in my name they will be rewarded.” Mark 9:41

The apostle John follows up with this challenge: “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:18).

I have asked myself this question about all of our NewPointe campuses: Would we be missed if we were to cease to exist? Is our impact in the community significant enough that our leaving would be a significant loss? Would the transformation of the community slow down or stop if we were not there, loving and giving? If the answer is not an enthusiastic and passionate “YES!” to all of those questions, we are missing it. This is what it means to be salt and light in our world. Jesus said that together we are to be like a city on a hill, whose combined lights cannot be hidden.

Have you ever flown back into your home airport late at night? Think of the joy and anticipation when you see the lights of the city rising up to greet you. You feel joy and hope and comfort. Those are the emotions our hurting and broken world needs to feel when they see us. We need to join together to love with such profoundly compassionate service that we are the light for them that leads the way home.

CID is a great way to teach your kids and grandkids the compassion of Christ and that being a Christ follower is more than just going to a “church.” Church is not a building we go to—it is US. Sharing the love of Jesus in the world is a way to not only have a conversation but to be an example.

This is one weekend “SERVICE” you don’t want to miss.