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Story | St. Luke Lutheran Church

An “Outflow” of God’s Love

St. Luke Lutheran Church in Columbus, OH was ready to serve...

Members at St. Luke Lutheran Church in Columbus, Ohio were ready to serve. Pastor Bob Moore had recently completed a sermon series on an outward-focused life, based on the book Outflow by Steve Sjogren , when he heard about Faith in Action.

“Faith in Action was the logical next step,” said Rhonda Peterson, director of lay ministries. “Outflow talked about how God’s love fills us, spilling out into our community and our world – and Faith in Action was a perfect illustration of that. It allowed us to practice what Pastor Moore had just preached!”

Many church members embraced the idea of serving as a form of worship; others said, “Let’s worship first and then serve.” So St. Luke combined their three morning services into one on their “Sunday of Service,” offering members the opportunity to worship at church before going out to serve.

One team worked at a nearby school, helping staff prepare for school which started the next day. They did everything from cleaning up the grounds to making copies for teachers and staff. A second group cleaned up trash at a nearby park. A third group visited an assisted living home, helping residents attend the Sunday morning services and then visiting with them afterward.

Teams of kids and adults were busy on church grounds, too. One team helped assemble care kits for soldiers in Iraq. In another, kids decorated and painted school bags while adults filled them with supplies for children in Africa, distributed by Lutheran World Relief. Still another team assembled quilts for Lutheran World Relief, to be sent to third world countries and disaster areas. Still other teams provided child care for parent workers and assembled lunches for all the workers.

“We received a lot of thank-you notes,” Rhonda recalls. “The staff at the park were so impressed with our people who helped them and at the amount of work that they were able to accomplish.

“Our people were so excited to be serving,” she added. “I received an email from a lady who was bubbling over with excitement at being able to do the Lord’s work – and she wasn’t even on the front lines, but was making sandwiches for all our workers! What a great attitude!”

In summing up the day, Rhonda remarked that Faith in Action “helped us become more aware of the importance of serving outside of our church.”

What’s next? St. Luke is in the planning stages for two projects in 2008. They’re also hosting a Ministry Fair for their members, inviting local community service groups such as their free local clinic and Big Brothers and Big Sisters to come in and speak about opportunities for service.

“Our church culture is beginning to shift,” Rhonda explained. “We’re turning away from our inward focus and beginning to focus on the bigger world.”