Among the defining ministry moments at Vine Street over the past year one stands out: forty-eight of us – children as young as six and adults as old as eighty-two, male and female, individuals and families of five – went to New Orleans for a week after Christmas. We went there to help rebuild a church and to build a parsonage; we went there to see for ourselves the damage caused by broken levees in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina; we went there to help rebuild with our own hands a broken community.

For an entire week, we lived together in a bunkhouse still under construction; we tore things down and cleaned up; we installed shower walls and framed out a sanctuary with steel studs; we shared all our meals in the big kitchen/living room that had just been tiled; we looked for God together, and every night we shared where we had seen God; we prayed, we cried, we were speechless at the amount of destruction in the lower wards; we worshiped with members of West Side Christian Church and their pastor, Brother Vance.

Our work trip to New Orleans after Christmas was an amazing experience, and we have already scheduled a follow-up trip for this winter. On December 30, almost fifty of us will again travel to the gulf coast to help rebuild a broken community – and to return with our own hearts profoundly transformed.

When we say “Community Ministry” we think about our work in the community, we think about going out through these doors and serving Christ in the people we encounter. We also think about Room In The Inn, a ministry of hospitality to men who have no place to sleep safely for the night during the winter months; they come through these doors and find friendly hosts, a good, hot meal, and a warm and safe place to spend the night.

When we say “Community Ministry” we also think about the community grants we give to several local organizations, including Campus for Human Development, Hope Camp, Disciples Village, Interfaith Dental Clinic, and many others (read a detailed report here).

We engage in various forms of community ministry and we are discovering that it is much more than we thought: not only do we offer support and help to others in the community, or help rebuild communities that are hurting; we ourselves as a community of faith are shaped profoundly by those mission experiences. And the greatest gift is this: as we reach out to others, our roles as givers and receivers soon begin to dissolve as God makes of us all one community. Perhaps that’s why we call it “Community Ministry” in the first place.

Through These Doors

We are God’s church. We are not our own, but a people called to new identity and fresh purpose in Christ. We are a people being saved by being drawn into Christ’s saving work.

Jesus says, “I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:9-10).

Every year we set aside a few weeks in the fall to give prayerful and focused attention to one dimension of our discipleship: being stewards. A steward is someone entrusted with taking care of someone else’s property. As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are not property owners but stewards of life – air, water, and land; animals and plants; the time, the neighbors, the resources given to us. Every year we set aside a few weeks to ask ourselves, Are we good stewards of life? Are we faithful stewards of the gifts entrusted to us? Does our way of life reflect that we have entered into new life through baptism into Christ?

We enter the church through the Gate, and we become part of a community that reaches back in time across many generations and that brings together people from every tribe and nation on the face of the earth. Whenever we say Church, we say GlobaLocal Church. Last Sunday we celebrated World Communion Sunday; theday serves as a reminder that the table around which we gather is larger than any of our tables: this table is big enough for all. This table extends beyond the doors of any sanctuary.

Doors are powerful symbols because they are openings. They are openings where access can be granted or denied. We go through doors to enter the world and to return home. We find ourselves standing in front of closed doors. We sit by doors longing for somebody to knock or we hold a door open waiting for somebody to cross the threshold.

Keeping in mind that Jesus Christ is the Gate to abundant life for the whole world, what doors do you need to unlock? What doors do you want to walk through more often? What doors will you have to close for good?