As I look back at my spiritual journey, I’ve seen how my view of the church has grown. When I was in High School, church was something I did because it was fun and my mom made a priority for us. My DCE often told me I should be a DCE and I kind of laughed about it. I was going to be an engineer, not a church worker. I wasn’t nearly pious enough to work at the church. The church was a building and a place, nothing more.
In college, the church grew a bit bigger as I learned more about the greater church body that we are members of and the work of other churches in other places. I started to experience the true fellowship aspect of the church, how we were one body caring for and supporting one another. After college, the church became my family as I moved across the country to an unfamiliar place. The church worked together to serve others through missions. There was an urgency for spreading the Word of God to other parts of the world and our own community.
Lately, I’ve started taking the next step. The church is a body of believers, living authentic lives, making decisions in all areas of their lives according to God’s Word. Here’s what I’m thinking this means:
- We need to be serious about the environment. Let’s use less paper, recycle what we have to use, reuse stuff when possible and waste less.
- We need to be serious about people’s physical health, not just spiritual and emotional. The church should host wellness activities such as jazzercise, church sports leagues, aerobics and more. We should use our physical property for the physical health of our members. Encourage people to come walk laps at church. Buy some exercise equipment, including treadmills, stationary bikes and limited weight sets and open it up for members to use. We could organize a walk the neighborhood event, praying for the people in our community as we walk.
- We need to be serious about offering healthy alternatives for coffee hour and around the campus. Is a pop machine the best option really? Why not a juice machine? Fruit and vegetables (yes, I said vegetables) instead of donuts. They cost more, but isn’t it a better long-term investment?
- Let’s have a church-wide “take off the weight” event. Let’s see if our church can lose 2,000 pounds. That’s less than 5 pounds/person in worship each weekend. I know I can contribute a few more than 5 myself.
- Let’s have a healthy cooking class/group in our kitchen. Pick 3-5 meals from a set menu, we get together to cook and prepare the food, then package it for use later in the week. It’s healthier, it saves time during the week, it cuts down on wasted food. It would be great fellowship and tons of fun.
It was a long journey for me to get here, but the possibilities for the church are intriguing.
Hey…when I was in High School – and even my first year and a half of college – I was going to be an engineer as well and not a church worker. That’s kinda freaky…
If we want to work on holistic living, I think we need to start by teaching people how to trim down their lives. We do too much stuff in this country and if we are going to have time to be healty and think about the environment…then we need to simplify! Otherwise, this good stuff you mention will just be one more thing on our plates. (pun may actually be intended…)
I say,”nah – have another sugar cookie! And then send the rest down south to me!” :o)
Tee hee hee! Kim
All you engineers-turned-church-workers!
Eric and Jason, I think you’re *both* right. If your family does a great job already of preparing healthy meals, or if you’re at a point in your family where coming up to church and doing meal prep is one thing too many, than by all means… don’t do it! But if coming up to church and doing meal prep with friends makes dinners simpler at home (and encourages healthy living and dinners around the table), go for it. I think there’s a way to do it where it wouldn’t be a legalistic “to-do” but a supportive “can-do”.
As far as recycling and exercise and healthy eating, though, I think those *should* be priorities, regardless of how busy our lives are. This is God’s world and our bodies are God’s temples… and I think that we neglect those areas a lot (I know I do).
But I’m with Kim — let’s not get rid of *all* the good stuff. 😉
Jason,
I really like your ideas about this. Lets talk about how to do some specific events around church in this area
Chris