Grace in Action

What appeared to be a mountain of canned goods greeted us on Sunday morning as we met at One Roof, a great ministry in Newnan, Georgia. We were there to begin the morning with the Lord’s Supper and then spend the rest of the morning sorting and packing can after can of food that would ultimately find its way in to the homes of needy people.

I learned a lot Sunday morning packing boxes of canned goods.

• Some people will donate canned goods that expired in 2001 (that was the record) and that makes you wonder about a lot of things.

• I never knew there were so many different brands of green beans available in grocery stores.

• Apparently corn is the favorite thing for people to donate in a canned food drive.

• Canned tuna has a much longer shelf date than I think it should.

• Ramen noodles have uses beyond quick meals for college students.

• I’m grateful for the hundreds of people who donated the thousands of cans that we were sorting.

• I’m grateful for the people who make the ministry at One Roof happen.

When I finally agreed to start meeting with a group of committed believers – mostly young adults frustrated with church as they knew it, but a few in my age range as well – one of the core ideas was that we would deliberately find ways to serve. Our goal is that at least one Sunday a month, we meet somewhere other than our regular meeting place, have communion together, and do some sort of “foot-washing ministry.”

It isn’t that we discount the importance of singing praises to God when meeting together, or that we think that we all know everything so there’s no need for more information. Rather it reflects the heart of a group of people who believe that the gospel is all about meeting needs. If sorting and boxing hundreds of cans of food can help meet needs, then we’re willing to do that.

But, if the truth be told, every time we do one of these Sunday ministry projects, I come away believing that I’ve learned something. My friend Ben Cachiaras says “service is the new apologetics.” I think he is exactly right. I’m currently reading Philip Yancey’s new book, Vanishing Grace. Yancey, using a lot of David Kinamon’s research is concerned that so many non-believers – especially the people he defines as “post-Christian” – don’t believe the gospel is good news. Or, to use the language of the season, it isn’t “glad tidings of great joy.”

This past Sunday, watching Grace folks joyfully and with gratitude sort and box canned goods for people they don’t even know, I kept thinking that if the “post-Christian” people around could see this, they wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss the Jesus story as non-consequential. It makes me more determined than ever to keep finding ways to act more like Jesus and less like some contrived definition of what it means to follow Jesus that is more in tune with the “civic Jesus” than the Jesus of Scripture.

I love the Sundays when we meet at our place and worship together. I wouldn’t want to give that up in any way. But I’m equally in love with the idea that on a regular basis, we are committed to “being church” as well as “going to church.”

This is not the world I grew up in – that’s good and bad. But it is the world God has called His people to bear witness to “glad tiding of great joy.” We have to find ways to let both the “pre-Christian” and “post-Christian” people around us know that grace is not an endangered species!

If you're interested in learning more about our community at Grace, you can check us out on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/graceacommunityoffaith.