“What is the biggest obstacle you have to ministry here in West Chester/Liberty Township?” I asked the elders in my interview for employment nearly 2 years ago. Their answer… materialism, self centeredness and lack of motivation to step out of our comfort zone and see the fullness of Christ’s gospel realized in everybody’s daily life. Don’t we all struggle with this? We tend to go about our day, worrying about ourselves, our families, what’s for dinner, how to excel at our job and then pull into our garage at night, shut the door and forget about the world around us. Thousands of people living a life without hope, without food, clothing, help, medicine or Jesus…in our own backyard. Well, the X-Focused ministry team has worked hard over the past 8 months to begin to identify needs of the hurting and struggling in our area and it is time to get to work. Really, let’s do it. Below are two sign-up links for you to participate in some outreach this summer…more opportunities will follow this summer and fall.
https://centerpointechristian.ccbchurch.com/app/w_form_response.php?form_id=39
https://centerpointechristian.ccbchurch.com/app/w_form_response.php?form_id=38
Recently, while reading a book called “The Hole in Our Gospel” by Richard Stearns, I realized something challenging that I hadn’t noticed before. If you were Jesus and you were about to embark on your ministry as the Messiah, son of God and were announcing this to your friends and family, what would you do to start your ministry off on the right foot? Well, I’ll tell you what Jesus did in Luke 4, speaking from a pulpit synagogue to a large crowd in his home town of Nazareth he read these words…”"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.’ Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
Wow, what truly strikes me is that Jesus announces his ministry is to be down and dirty helping those who really need it and because of this everybody can know He is the Messiah, God’s plan laid out. This is how He begins his ministry and announces his arrival to his hometown friends and family. As the church, we are called to carry out this mission in today’s time. Today we are called to rise up and help the battered, afflicted and abandon…to show hope to those that need it the most.
Well, this summer and fall you find plenty of opportunities to do both. Check out the links above to get involved this month. More opportunities will follow in July, August, September and October.
First, we’ve worked with Butler County ESC to identify a trailer park in Lakota Local schools that houses hundreds of kids that are so low income that they will have little to eat all summer long since they’re not in school getting lunch. We are going to provide lunch for approximately 75 kids and potentially parents in this complex every Monday through Friday for two weeks June 22-26 and June 29th – July 3rd. If you are interested in signing up your Life Group, bible study group, ministry or just your family please click the link above for the summer lunch program.
Secondly, we are forming an Outreach and Inreach current needs list. This will be a sort of bulletin board where we will post needs of struggling individuals in our community or church body for our groups and individuals to help with. This list will include postings such as a family needing a baby bed, a car fixed, yard mowed for example. Anybody in the community who has a need will be able to contact the church to have a need posted and we will then email this need out to those on the mailing list. We’d like to ask that if you are a member of a Life Group or Bible study, please consider being the contact for your group, sign up below and consider helping when needed. This list will also serve as a platform for community benevolent ministries to post needs for food items, clothing or volunteer work needed.
It’s time to get outside of ourselves a bit. Keep an eye out, we are going to be partnering more with some area complexes that need help and the County to work with the foster system as well as the underprivileged in our community and schools. We will also be hosting the Help Build Hope Project in September and a Run/Walk for FAME, a medical mission we support helping meet the needs of children worldwide that die everyday of treatable and preventable diseases. Watch for more details.
If you have an interest in helping with the X-Focused team in any way at all, please contact Keith Wilson at keithw@centerpointechristian.org
In Him,
Keith
Keith Wilson
Outreach & Life Group Minister
Center Pointe Christian Church
5962 Hamilton Mason Road
Liberty Township, OH 45011
513.779.8800 ext. 12
www.centerpointechristian.org