Ministering to the Misfits

This Sunday-Services And Times As Usual
When I first saw these words on a church sign the week after July 4, I had to take a second look. God has been doing a fresh work in my heart and in the lives of hundreds of Englewood members. He is leading us to understand what it means to be the Body of Christ in a broken world. To us, business as usual is not good enough.
We know that God is calling us to go beyond the protective walls of the church building into a world that is dirty, demonic, and dangerous. We want to make a difference for the masses of hurting people who walk our streets, live in other nations and even in our neighborhoods, speak other languages, and maybe sit in our rows.
Every member has their own idea of what a church should be and do. Most agendas expressed by church leaders and members are worthy ones. However, for us to truly experience God as a church, each of us must let go of any personal agenda and get on God's agenda.
When we study the Bible we see what God's agenda is-to offer an intimate relationship with Him to every person on earth. That means to those people whom the world considers outcasts, misfits, rejects, losers. Those are the poor, the crippled, the incapacitated, and the blind. The homeless, the helpless and the hopeless.
No one is outside the realm of God's love. And no one should be outside the reach of our church. As Englewood is actively, intentionally ministering to the homeless, the orphans, the poor, the disabled, the alcoholic and addict, and the outcasts of our society with the intention of bringing them into the fold of God, then we are on God's agenda.
Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind. Luke 14:21