God’s Work, Our Hands

There’s a way in which church is always and already “inside out.” Other than clergy and a few other church professionals, the majority of the members of the church spend most all of their time outside of churches rather than inside church buildings.

But the Church is not a building, so, in another sense, the Church is always wherever the people of God are because the people of God are the Church.

This is how Christian faith traditionally understands the idea of the church, even, if in English, we sometimes muddy the waters by calling the buildings where the Church gathers “churches.”

Last spring, when our congregation took the National Congregational Life Survey, we learned that an unusually high percentage of our members (compared to the national average) are involved in community service. We volunteer all over the place. We’re gonzo for community service. We lead organizations like the Rotary Club and Single Parent Scholarship Fund and Big Brother, Big Sister.

We work in a wide variety of nonprofit agencies like Seven Hills in Fayetteville and The Jones Center in Springdale. We volunteer with therapy dogs, at Cooperative Emergency Outreach, the library, the schools and in our property owners’ associations.

We feed people at Sunday suppers, staff the welcome desk at the hospital and more.

No matter how exhaustive I tried to make this list, I’d overlook a variety of ways the members of our church volunteer.

I should add that Lutherans (and probably many other Christians) emphasize that we aren’t the Church primarily in worship or in volunteer work, but in the dailiness of everyday life.

The first vocation of the Church is to care for our families, work with integrity in our jobs, study hard and carefully in school, care for creation, excel at citizenship and be good neighbors.

Nevertheless, sometimes - even on Sunday - it is good for the Church to remind itself that it is gathered to be sent, and community service is a way we can be the Church together in God’s world.

That Church is inside-out through-and-through.

So, on Sunday, Sept.

8, as part of a national movement of churches of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, our congregation will be participating in “God’s Work, Our Hands.”

On this day, we will gather as a whole congregation at 8 a.m. for worship.

At the conclusion of worship, we will bless the whole community, and send them out in work asteams to volunteer at a host of locations around Northwest Arkansas.

Many of the places we volunteer are places our members already really like to volunteer - but we are looking for more opportunities to do so.

As of this writing, we have teams (hopefully around 300 people) going to Seven Hills Homeless Shelter, the Fayetteville Veterans Home, Northwest Arkansas Community Correction Center, the Fayetteville Animal Shelter, our own Love Bears ministry, the Samaritan House, Fayetteville Health and Rehab, Cooperative Emergency Outreach and Happy Hollow Elementary.

Most of us plan to wear cool T-shirts the denomination has produced for this special day - not because you can’t volunteer without a special T-shirt, but because we hope the visibility of our groups will help us witness to the connection between faith in community and service in God’s world. God’s work, our hands. Plus, who doesn’t like to travel in packs wearing matching T-shirts?

This Sunday is also an opportunity to celebrate our 25th anniversary as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America - one church, freed in Christ, to serve and love our neighbors. We like to say, “We are a church that rolls up our sleeves and gets to work.” On Sept. 8, we will join together as 4 million members, nearly 10,000 congregations, 65 synods and the churchwide expression dedicate a day to service.

Other churches in our denomination plan to clean up neighborhoods, deliver meals, collect supplies for refugees overseas, visit our neighbors or help children learn to read.

We work every day to welcome our neighbors and make our community a better place.

On this special day, we do it together as one body, using our hands to do God’s work of restoring and reconciling communities in Jesus Christ’s name throughout the world.

I hope it’s the kind of day that makes us even better neighbors here in Northwest Arkansas.

THE REV. CLINT SCHNEKLOTH IS PASTOR OF GOOD SHEPHERD LUTHERAN CHURCH IN FAYETTEVILLE. HE LEADS A LITERARY FICTION BOOK DISCUSSION AT 5:30 P.M. THE FOURTH TUESDAY OF EACH MONTH AT NIGHTBIRD BOOKS IN FAYETTEVILLE. HE BLOGS AT LUTHERANCONFESSIONS.

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