We continue our series on missions this Sunday at Grace Community Church, this week focusing on local missions. Don’t forget to set your clocks ahead one hour for daylight savings time. You do not want to miss this series. I’ll be looking at a familiar story to challenge us to think. We will also have some community ministry opportunities represented. The music lineup is incredible. Join us at 8:30, 10:00 or 11:30. We love visitors!

The people Joshua was supposed to be leading were not going in the direction he was supposed to be taking them. The Israelites had fallen to the ways of the world, following other gods, and choosing to reject their commitments made to God and to Joshua.

It’s Saturday…time for another dream stretch! I promise not to take this into perpetuity, but I really do believe the world needs a few more dreams. You can read more about my thoughts in the first dream stretch post HERE.

That’s one reason I was motivated to promote a new ministry venture I recently learned about. My blogger friend Kent Shaffer’s wife, Evie has assembled a creative initiative to allow artists to use their talent to help other charities. A Beautiful Idea (ABI) allows artists to showcase and sell their unique product, with 100% of the sale of that item going to charity. This can be ongoing, or a one-time deal.

I’m personally excited about this ministry, having dealt with military family for years and having so many friends affected by deployments. Some families are facing their fourth and fifth deployments with the upcoming one. They are tired, frustrated, and stretched, while remaining amazingly faithful to their mission to keep us safe. God bless our soldiers and their families. I’m praying The Lantern Ministry offers some help.

The shoes are starting to pile up for Soles4Souls. We are excited to partner with such an impacting ministry. For more information about this project, click HERE.

We have a great experiment this week at Grace Community Church. I’m one that chooses to look for the positive in every negative situation, so I really want to see what I can grasp from this opportunity.

One would have to be living under a rock (or a shoe) not to have heard of Soles4Souls Ministry in recent months. Soles4Souls has a simple concept: they get shoes and give them away. You can read more about their history HERE. This is one ministry that went to work immediately and is making a huge impact in the Haiti disaster.

Rog Hill, our Serve Pastor, emailed me today to ask what we need to do to address the earthquake crisis in Haiti. The fact is he beat me to the email. I was working out of the office today on my message for Sunday, but couldn’t escape my thoughts about this tragedy. I had received several emails already from people in our church wondering if we were doing anything. I was intending to email Rog later in the day. I’m thankful for a church so ready to respond to others in need. We don’t have our plans worked out completely, but we know we have to do something.

Is your passion more for Christ or more for growing your church?