Kristen McLane

Posted by Kristen McLane on March 10th, 2008 in Daily Life, Faith/Spirituality

God of This City

You’re the God of this city, You’re the King of these people
You’re the Lord of this nation, You are
You’re the Light in this darkness, You’re the Hope to the hopeless
You’re the Peace to the restless, You are

There is no one like our God, there is no one like our God

For greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city

Greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city

Greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done here

You’re the Lord of Creation, the Creator of all things
You’re the King above all Kings, You are
You’re the strength in our weakness, You’re the love to the broken
You’re the joy in the sadness, You are

This song is quickly being adopted as the battle cry for churches around the world. It begs the question, what are we doing (as individuals and as churches) to show God’s love in our communities? Greater things are yet to come when we obey God’s command to be light in our world. There is no one right or wrong answer to the question. Sometimes “being light” is simply the act of serving your community. In October I shared one way how Adam use Halloween as a way to get to know our neighbors:

For the past two years on Halloween Adam and I have set up a beverage tent in our yard. I take the kids trick-or-treating while Adam stays at the house. We view Halloween as an opportunity to meet our neighbors. As Adam says, “when 300 kids come to your door, it is a ministry opportunity.” In addition to passing out candy we offer free hot chocolate, coffee and cider. I wish that we had taken a picture but basically we set up an outdoor canopy, table and chairs. To be more festive and for lighting Adam strung Christmas lights around the canopy. We borrowed three large thermal beverage dispensers from the church to keep the beverages warm all night. This small gesture of hospitality is always met with enthusiasm and it provides an opportunity for conversation with parents that you otherwise wouldn’t have. The most fun for me is recognizing Megan’s classmates and finally meeting their parents when they stop by. We estimated that we had around 200 kids stop by and we served over 50 drinks.

Another thing that I do regularly is volunteer in Megan’s school. Some days I help in the classroom and other days I make photocopies for the teacher. Either way, I have the opportunity to show God’s love to the students and staff of the school through my service. On Saturday my church will be serving complimentary warm beverages at our community Easter Egg Hunt. Just another way of saying “you matter to us; you matter to God.” It has been said that the Christian life can be summed up in four words: Love God, Love Others. What about you, how do you love your community?