In fact, it was actively blowing in.
I walked from my car to the church office with a small towel covering my mouth and nose so that I wouldn’t breathe in the dust last Thursday evening.
It was nearly 6:30 PM, the appointed time for our Outreach Meeting and I was sure that nobody would be there. Who in the world wants to drive out in the middle of a dust storm on a weeknight around dinner time to come to a committee meeting?
Turns out, a room full of people, that’s who!
Because this wasn’t any ordinary meeting. This was an Outreach Meeting at First Christian Church Scottsdale, and since Outreach is such a core issue to who we are as a community of faith, well, people weren’t going to miss it. As folks kept pouring into my office we had to drag in extra chairs and reorganize the seating arrangements a couple of times. We ended up with a dozen folks crammed into my office and for the next two hours we talked Outreach and Mission Opportunities for our church. The commitment to outreach and putting our faith in action is so deep in this church, and I’ve never been prouder!
(By the way, some folks really did face a dangerous road to get here during the dust storm and had to turn back. I completely understand and I’m glad they made it home safely and are planning on being a part of the outreach work we do here at FCC Scottsdale.)
It was a marvelous meeting!
Bob and Judy Stall (our We Serve Coordinator and Minister for Outreach respectively) did a fabulous job facilitating the conversation and helping us to brainstorm a whole list of possibilities for the coming program year. We also talked about the “in-reach” programs for members of the church and discussed the opportunity of becoming a Global Mission Church. But mostly, we brainstormed, and we came up with a long list of possibilities and assigned specific people to follow up on specific projects.
Which leads me to the invitation. We’ll be meeting again on Wednesday August 31 at 6:30PM in my office to actually choose which projects we feel called to undertake in the coming year. It is an open invitation for everyone in the church. Come by to hear about outreach projects and help us decide where we’ll be focusing our energies in the coming months. I’ll see you Wednesday August 31…hopefully without the dust storm this time around!
Yours in the journey, Rev. Brian
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