“When He saw the crowds, he had compassion on them.” (Matt. 9:35-38)
He had compassion on them. Serving begins with seeing people the way that Jesus did. Compassion means we donʼt look at people through the 10 Commandments, but through the Great Commandment. We are to love our neighbors, not just throw gospel grenades at them. It means to go where it hurts; to enter into the pain of others. This is the feet on the ground side of being a missional church. Missional means to have the heart of Jesus at the heart of the church: becoming a community of compassion and kindness, where our love is not calculated and measured, where we practice the same indiscriminate love that Jesus did.
In Our Community
We believe the Roanoke Valley is our immediate mission field. This is where we are to serve. We are to “seek the peace and the prosperity of the city to which I have called you, to pray to the LORD for it because if it prospers, we will too (Jer. 29:7). So we have been getting involved in various serving ministries in the city:
- Food ministries
- Tutoring ministries
- Shelters for the homeless
- Beginning to explore what it means to invest in a particular neighborhood.
- We can help plug you in to serving with the Nepali Immigrant Church (next door to ours)
- Many of our men serve in the KAIROS Prison Ministry
- Tutoring; Pack-A- Snack for local primary schools; serving meals at the Rescue Mission
- We do meal sign-ups when members give birth or have surgery
- Somebody’s always moving and needs help
- We have done Habitat for Humanity build teams and Roanoke River Clean-up
COR GROUPS serve together in our community at least once per quarter. There are numerous “rotations” for serving in many different capacities on Sunday mornings such as reading Scripture, doing the sound board, the Music Team, ushering, serving in the Children’s Ministry, and serving on the Hospitality Table Team.
Contact our Deacons at [email protected] for more information on how you can get involved.