In I Corinthians chapter 16, the apostle Paul is wrapping up his letter to this rambunctious young church. As he closes the letter, he is unfolding his customary goodbye with a warm and informative bucket of information. One of the items he is closing with relates to his desire and plans to have an extended visit with them again in the near future. However, he tells them that he is going to stay put in Ephesus until late spring because “a wide door for effective work has opened to me.” In all of Paul’s travels there were times when opportunities were slim to none. In those cases Paul and his companions usually packed their bags and moved on looking for ‘open doors’ that provided opportunities to share the message of Christ. Evidently, one of those ‘open door’ opportunities presented itself to Paul in Ephesus and, therefore, he was faithful and responsible to take on the challenge. Eventually that opportunity played itself out and Paul packed his bag and headed for Corinth.
In similar fashion we all do the same thing, both individually and as a church. We are always looking for opportunities to do good works in order to build good will so that we can eventually share good news. In the 3+ years since we relocated Quest to Wildwood, God has been about His business providing ‘open doors’ both in this community and around the world. Three come to mind that are clear open doors right now. We don’t know how long those doors will remain open, but for now we want to be faithful to serve in the places that He has thrown open the doors.
The first one, and maybe the ‘widest door’, seems to be in the local schools. The Lord has given us favor in several of them. We do not approach our involvement there as evangelist, but a great chance to come along side those serving in our public schools. At one point years ago, churches functioned as the ‘center of the culture’. That day seems to be long gone. Today the schools (and sports) have taken that central role in our community. The weight of responsibility that the schools carry is phenomenal. Not only do they focus on academics, but they try to address character development, social/emotional development, family issues, community development and much more. Rather than sit around and bemoan our diminished role, we have decided to come along side the schools and seek the welfare of our community in partnership with them.
Kelly Moore heads up this effort but it is far too much for her to do alone. She has developed a team of volunteers who have done a great job of serving in those ‘open door’ opportunities. However, there is more that we could do and the ‘doors are even wider’ than even a year ago. I would like to invite you to join Kelly and her team in serving in the great schools around us. Below you will see the events that are coming up where you can get involved. Sign ups have not started since they are farther out, but if you’d like to be on Kelly’s go-to team, please email her.
- Friday, Oct 25 – Pond Elementary’s Trunk or Treat from 5-8pm – we will need people to help with traffic control and giving out candy so that parents are free to enjoy the evening with their kids.
- Monday, Oct 28 – Goodies with Grandparents – 7:30-9am at Pond Elementary – we need some people to hep set up, serve a simple breakfast and then clean up afterwards.
- Got Your Backpack is once a month on Wednesdays where a team of people help fill backpacks with food for lower-income kids to take home in the evenings or over weekends.
- Tuesday, Nov 26th – Donuts with Dads – 7:30-9am at Pond Elementary – we need a team of people to help set up and serve donuts to kids and their dads then help clean up after.
- Babler Elementary – Gathering Thanksgiving meals to box up and give to lower-income kids for the Thanksgiving holiday.
- Adopt-a-Family for Christmas (Pond, Babler and Wildwood Middle) – we will have specific items to collect plus $10 gift cards to Target, Walmart, Schnucks and/or Aldi
The second ‘open door’ has been in Haiti. It seems like it is a long way from here, but it is actually only one time zone away. Culturally, however, it is a lot farther. It is a whole different world. Despite the differences, we have been given an ‘open door’ to serve and love some of the poorest of the poor and the forgotten of the forgotten. In partnership with WISH, a 50 year old mission on the island of La Gonave, we have been able to invest time, skills and finances in improving a desperate situation on the salt flats of Anse-A-Galet. Construction on the school, that we raised money for last Christmas, is continuing. They just recently started the school term using the rehabbed facilities and look forward to opening more classes once the new construction is completed. Once again, we are hoping to send a couple of teams to Haiti in 2020 and would like to see a handful of new people join with us. This is a profoundly unique experience that I would encourage you to take seriously.
The third ‘open door’ is a little smaller than the others, but just as important. Kevin Gleason is developing our churches relationship with the local first responders. We have been providing holiday meals at Thanksgiving and Christmas for those who have to serve on those holidays. We have opportunities to continue and expand this effort with more cities in our area. In a culture that seems to have drifted from our support for (especially) the police, we want to affirm our support and appreciation. Here is another opportunity to do good work in order to build good will so that we can share good news.
There are other ‘open doors’ and there will be new ones as we go along, but for now I would invite and challenge you to get involved with these opportunities.