Church Family,
The day that this article is getting We are now one week away from our fourth annual Impact Week! When we launched this local missions-oriented week of service back in 2019, I don’t think any of us could have anticipated how God has worked in and through this incredible week. Partnering with great organizations in our city like Loaves and Fishes, Room at the Inn, Thrive, and the St. Louis County Area Foodbank, among many others, has been such a blessing.
For Impact Week this year, we have projects that include each of those non-profit organizations I listed above, along with providing a meal for our police department, coffee for Pattonville’s Early Childhood Center, cleaning up local parks, hosting a blood drive, and having our monthly Mobile Market. You can sign up for any of these projects, or you can organize your own with your family or your Bible study class. From baking cookies for firemen to making cards for health care workers, there are a lot of different ways we can stay on mission and be the hands and feet of Jesus!
In Matthew 12, John the Baptist is stuck in prison and is struggling with doubt. He even sends a couple of his disciples to go and ask Jesus if He was actually the Messiah or not. Do you know how Jesus responds to this question? He tells John’s disciples to go and share with Him what they have seen and heard.
Jesus then alludes to prophecies in Isaiah when he shares about all the things that he is doing. He was telling the disciples that the proof was in the way He both proclaimed and demonstrated the Gospel. For Jesus, He proclaimed that the Kingdom of God was at hand. Then, He backed up that proclamation through His many miracles. He both shared the Gospel with His lips and demonstrated it with His life.
In the same way, we have the opportunity during Impact Week to share the Gospel through proclamation and demonstration. We need to be ready to turn everyday conversations into Gospel conversations. Further, by going out and serving the community and meeting needs, we are going to demonstrate to our community the reality of God’s love for them.
It is my prayer that we can show our community through Impact Week that we really do love where we live. I believe that our demonstration of the Gospel through our local mission work is going to allow us open doors to proclaim the truth of the Gospel to our neighbors.
Will you join me in praying for our church during Impact Week? Let’s pray that we can be living proof of who Jesus is and what He has done for us!
In Him,
Pastor Zach Crook