Swamp People & Jesus People or “Why do they not use gloves?!”
Dear Sent Ones,
I should get kick backs from the creators of “Swamp People”. I have heard from many of you that you have started watching and are getting hooked on our gator catching, non-glove/shirt wearing friends. Glad I could help! My hope is that Crossbridge would be the “Jesus People” equivalent. That our city would see our generosity, grace-extending, hope-giving, love-enacting community at work and be like “Are you kidding me?! Who does that? They believe that stuff?! I’m a little freaked out but totally enamored!” Don’t you want to be part of a church like that?!
When the local church is at its best; the gospel is flooding the mind, fueling the heart and flowing through the hands and feet of the Christian community. The scripture shows this over and over. Not only the scripture, but if you take a look at church history you find it as well. Read what one historian wrote around 260 AD about the church as it responded to the great epidemic hitting the Greco-Roman world.
“(During the great epidemic) most of our brother Christians showed unbound love and loyalty, never sparing themselves…Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ…Many, in nursing and curing others, transferred their death to themselves and died in their stead…The (pagans) behaved in the opposite way. At the first onset of the disease, they pushed the sufferers away and fled from their dearest, throwing them into the roads before they were dead.”
Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria (around 260 AD)
Wow! I still have a long way to go but I want be a man who displays and declares the gospel like that!
On another note as many of you know, this year our budget is our biggest financial stretch yet in our church’s history. We have rolled our building debt into our normal operating budget. We need to bring in through tithes and giving $68,757 a month to make this budget. In January we brought in $59,495. We need to continue to pray about God providing for our church family so that our global giving, church planting support and regular ministry to our city doesn’t suffer. If you are a regular giver, thank you for your obedience to God’s word and giving to the local church. If you are not a regular giver and you call Crossbridge your church home, let me encourage you to begin to give regularly to our mission. It is what the Bible expects of followers of Jesus in a faith community. We are praying and asking God to pay off this debt this year and put us in a position to do even more ministry in the next 18-24 months. God is faithful and good. Let’s do our part together. You can pick up a copy of our total budget at our information table this Sunday if you are interested in learning more.
This Sunday we will finish our series “I am Sent”. Let me encourage you to be here as we will be praying as a church for our Chili on the Porch Sunday and Easter which counting today is 62 days away! Our friends from Attack Poverty will be here again too and you will have an opportunity to sign-up as a Community Group, family or individual to be part of our “Friends of North Richmond” initiative! It should be a great day!
See-ya Sunday!
Gator Huntin’ Rules!
Chuck
