New Around the Mission

Like many churches, Christ Church in Overland Park, Kansas, had a history of arranging opportunities for its parishioners to serve their community. But until this March, the parish had never given families complete ownership of choosing and executing their own service projects.

“As a ministry leader, I have often been guilty of setting up every Serve Event for families and children at Christ Church,” says Dawn Heckert, Director of Children and Family Life Ministries. “This leads families to wait on me to tell them the best way to serve and how to do it. The Serve Event this March allowed me to lead families to discover how to ask God [for ways] to serve.”

To get people excited about service, Christ Church designed special packets for them to take home and use over the month of March. Inside were envelopes containing clues to help families pray about what their mission would be and their willingness to accept it. They had until the last week of March to complete their creative task, whether helping a neighbor with yard work, babysitting pets for free or serving at a homeless shelter. The Serve Event was an extension of the Sunday worship curriculum Tru by David C. Cook, a resource focused on empowering churches to coach parents to be spiritual leaders in the home.

“We wanted our families to ask the question, ‘God, what needs to be done?’” Dawn says.

And when parishioners did ask, they were showered with unexpected opportunities. One family was walking through the park when they felt led to stop and pick up trash. Another family delivered meals to people in need and their son took care of the neighbors’ pets for free. Yet another young person and his family created Easter baskets to deliver to the neighbors. The Adams family made the Serve Event more inclusive by inviting their extended family to join them in prayer for what needed to be done, then preparing meals, making cards and delivering hope to friends. Young Madison and her grandma decided to make cards and help their neighbor with spring yard work.

Andrea Staley and her three daughters, Kayla, Corinne and Kendall, were initially unsure what to do as a family to serve their community.

“The girls got excited about making cupcakes … but who to give them to?” Andrea says.

So the girls sat down and made a list of eight neighbors to receive their homemade cupcakes and cards—including neighbors they didn’t know very well. In response to delivery of the sweet treats, Andrea received notes like:

“You have the sweetest daughters!!! Thank you, Corinne and Kendall, for surprising us with cupcakes at our door last night—they were almost too beautiful to eat, but once I took a bite, I had to have two!!”

“The timing was so perfect for those cupcakes. I've been down with bronchitis since Friday, and have had to miss work this week besides. The girls bringing those cupcakes to our door was an absolute blessing … you have no idea!!”

For one recipient, a 30-year-old man who had suffered a stroke, the homemade cards, cupcakes and a devotional did more than lift his spirits—they brought him peace and a spiritual awakening. As he read cards from children he’d never met who were praying for him, Byron recognized he was long overdue for a conversation with God.

Christ Church concluded its month of serving with a celebration where parishioners shared stories and photos of what God led them to accomplish for others during March. The celebration, Dawn says, reinforced how God can use His people in little ways that are big to others, as well as how trusting the Holy Spirit’s prompting can bring joy, renewal and hope.

“Leading families to ask the question, ‘God, what needs to be done?’ demonstrated the true role of the church,” she relates. “We helped people to develop a relationship that causes them to rely on God … Our families have a desire now to hear from God and do what he asks.”

Learn more at ChristChurch-OP.org.

Get rid of your 21st century glasses, slip on dirty sandals and physically experience the life of Jesus from Nazareth to the cross. That was Jeff Angulo’s goal for the 100-some participants at the Passover Seder meal he led at All Saints Anglican Church in Morehead City, North Carolina, last month.

“We strip away what you think you know, and instead of looking at the Passover academically, we put ourselves in the street,” he explains. “Today’s Christians miss so many New Testament references because we’re not part of that culture. We’ve just lost the context.”

Jeff’s solution is to bring misunderstood and overlooked elements of the Passover to life by laying a foundation that revisits Moses and the Exodus, Jesus’ childhood home in Nazareth, the Upper Room, the cross, and even how modern Jews celebrate Passover today. Through an intricate knowledge of the Jewish culture, he provides cultural and historical context for Jesus’ oft-repeated words such as “This is my body, broken for you.” He also answers questions like, “What does that hurried flight from Egypt have to do with the ‘Last Supper’ (or certainly me) anyway?” “What does this celebration from Jesus’ time mean for a Christian’s future?” “How we can truly ‘feast on Him’?”

The Old Testament Sunday School teacher and husband of Patti Angulo, Administrative Assistant of theAM Executive and Leadership Office in Pawley's Island, South Carolina, has always loved history and attained much of his knowledge through Jewish friends and attending a Messianic Jewish synagogue for a year. He now passes that knowledge on through Seder gatherings for churches and school groups. Many attendees respond wide-eyed, “I never knew that!”

But Jeff weaves plenty of laughter and fun throughout the Scripture lessons. The night at All Saints included games and a delicious kosher meal prepared by ladies in the church. This year the women wore head coverings and performed the traditional Jewish sanctification of the home—“getting a kick out of lighting the candles and saying the Hebrew prayers,” Jeff reports.

Bishop Doc Loomis was a first-time guest at the recent All Saints’ Seder meal. He asked Jeff in wonderment, “Where did you get all this stuff?” and expressed appreciation for the bountiful new sermon content. As always, Jeff was happy to see his work bearing fruit, but his favorite part of the evening was people’s response to the Eucharist at the end of the program.

“They took the elements in a much different way,” he says. “You could see the new understanding in their faces. This time they really knew what they were doing.”

Learn more or invite Jeff Angulo to your church.

Few people have experienced an Easter Sunday celebration like the one on April 8 at Grace Fellowship in San Antonio, Texas. Instead of the traditional service in a church building, the free gathering took place from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at nearby Kiddie Park, a popular family amusement park and one of San Antonio’s favorite landmarks. There, more than 300 people enjoyed free breakfast tacos from Taco Cabana and sat shoulder-to-shoulder at picnic tables as the Grace worship team led songs of praise in English and Spanish. Then the Rev. Matt Kessler invited all the children to sit down at the front of the famous hand-carved carousel and hear the story of Easter. After the kids’ message, Grace prepared for Holy Communion, with Matt leading The Great Thanksgiving in English and attendee Richard Ellwood providing a Spanish translation.

After worship, the Kiddie Park rides opened. People fellowshipped, prayed with Grace prayer teams and shared their stories with one another. Some came to Christ, while others indicated an interest in being baptized and were baptized on April 15 at Grace Fellowship.

Many unchurched attendees learned about the free Easter celebration through Grace’s partnership with Lamar Elementary where they have been ministering for nearly a year. Students received fliers in English and Spanish inviting them, their families and friends to the worship gathering. Others were invited by Grace’s canvassing teams that passed out fliers to the neighborhoods surrounding Kiddie Park on Good Friday and Easter morning.

“From the opening worship song to the final amusement park ride, smiles abounded,” says Lacy Jeffreys, Grace’s Communications Coordinator. “There is no way to quantify the joy folks experienced on Easter Sunday at Kiddie Park!”

Learn more at Grace Fellowship.

By the Rev. Mark Eldredge
Christ Church in Jacksonville, Florida

At the start of 2012, I felt called by God to start using the gift He gave me—over 17 years ago—to pray for people to receive physical healing. I had always believed in healing prayer and miracles, but never really saw many, to be quite honest. I always figured it was just a timing thing, and when God wanted to move through me in this way He would. Believing now was the time, I joined our existing Wednesday night worship team because that worship service is designed to be an experience of both worship and healing prayer. We have trained prayer ministers to pray with people for a range of needs: physical, emotional and spiritual. I stepped in to give the talks and to start using the gift God gave me—with high expectations.

Well, my expectations were not only met, but far exceeded! At theAM’s Winter Conference in Houston in January, I went to a workshop on how to receive prophetic words from God. The idea was that if He reveals to me (or anyone) that He wants to heal someone, He will do it. After the workshop, I figured I’d just try it and … get ready … IT ACTUALLY WORKS! Now, almost every Wednesday night, the Lord reveals a “word” and someone is being healed. Let me share with you some of the amazing stories of God's love and power from Wednesday Worship that I hope will build your faith as much as it has mine, and encourage you to come and experience God’s healing power for yourself.

One woman, Patti, had suffered from scoliosis for years. The first night I prayed for her, I only touched the top of her back and it was healed (frankly I didn’t want to touch her lower back because it seemed awkward to me). But the next week I believed the Lord said He wanted to complete the healing. So I asked permission to pray for her lower back, and you could actually feel it straightening as we prayed! To be honest, I was amazed at the immediate power of God and sort of embarrassed that I was so surprised it worked. But I kept thinking of the Gospel of Mark Chapter 1 where Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom of God had arrived, and He preached, healed and cast out demons as a witness to that Kingdom. The pushing back of the Devil’s Kingdom—sin, sickness and spiritual oppression—is what Jesus does. Repentance of sin, healing of sickness and the casting out of demons is what we should expect as normal!

Anyway, that following Sunday, Patti told me that she went to put her “lift” in her shoe that she had always needed due to the scoliosis, and she didn’t need it anymore. Awesome!

Another woman, Sandy, could barely walk due to the arthritis in her knee. I knew God’s power was moving, but I didn’t have a specific word for her so I didn’t know what to expect. As I prayed, I didn’t “feel” anything happening—like heat or something—and neither did she. Still, I believed the Lord was saying He healed it. So I risked telling her that and asked her to try moving it. She did, and I wish you could have seen the look of wonder, praise and thanks that came over her. The pain had gone and she could move her knee freely! She simply and rightly kept saying, “Thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus…” Awesome!

Let me tell you just one more story. Janice came one Wednesday night having just found out there was a tumor on her kidney. She was scheduled for a biopsy the following Tuesday. She came believing by faith God was going to heal and remove the tumor. After the other miracles I had been seeing, I had no reason to doubt it, but … you never know. This was a “big one” to me. Of course, nothing is too big for God. We prayed, and again I didn’t feel anything happening and neither did she. She just knew by faith [her tumor] was healed. I also believed God told me He had healed it. We both agreed and expected the doctors not to be able to find it on Tuesday.

Well, although I was confident in God, I was a bit anxious all week until I heard the report from the doctor. You can probably guess what happened: The doctors could not find the tumor. It was gone. Awesome!

In our Gospel reading last Sunday, John wrote, “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31 NIV). Similarly, I have written these stories that you might believe and have life in his name. I invite you to come and see what Jesus is doing at Wednesday Worship at Christ Church. Come receive that emotional, physical or spiritual healing that is available to you as His Kingdom comes on earth as it is in Heaven.

Learn more at ChristChurchJax.com.

Seven years ago, when Tami Carr, Children’s Pastor at Immanuel Anglican Church in Destin, Florida, realized there were no summer camps for children in Destin, she thought, “Why not create a fun-filled, Jesus-centered place for people to take their children during the summer?” With just 20 kids and a large grassy field on church property, she started a program called Holy Mackerel, designed to teach children the Word of God outside a classroom environment. That first summer they offered five weeklong sessions and employed the staff of Immanuel’s preschool as directors, along with youth group volunteers as leaders.

Despite those humble beginnings, the idea caught fire. Last year more than 100 children—50% of them unchurched—participated in Holy Mackerel, which keeps costs low to allow more children to enroll and even offers camper scholarships. This summer, the camp will provide eight continuous weeks of play, games, worship, field trips, crafts and valuable life lessons drawn from Scripture. Tami has expanded the program to include one week of Little Mackerels camp for preschool-aged children and the LIMB (Lessons in Moments of Bravery) program that trains 6th and 7th grade students to be leaders.

“As children interact with youth leaders and adults, they form bonds of trust and friendship that make it easy to experience the love of Christ,” Tami says. “Many of our young campers have committed their lives to Jesus at the conclusion of their camping week.”

The Rev. Mike Hesse, Senior Pastor at Immanuel, says camp is a perfect opportunity for children to meet Jesus.

“Each year the various sessions have found boys and girls inviting the Lord into their hearts in life-transforming ways,” he says. “Tami has a remarkable ability to find the best adult leaders and youth volunteers and inspire them to great efforts.”

For Tami, Holy Mackerel is much more than an outreach project for their church. She believes so strongly in the concept of Christ-centered summer camp that, following God's leading, she recently stepped down from her position as Children’s Pastor to found Holy Kidz Summer Camps, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit Christian organization for children in kindergarten through 5th grade.

“My vision is to encourage little ones to know and love the Lord by planting summer day camp programs across the Florida Panhandle and wherever the Lord shall lead me,” she says.

Holy Mackerel is the only camp planned for this summer, but Tami has received phone calls from other churches about starting their own camps. She envisions her role as consultant, trainer or, if location permits, bringing her own team of people to conduct a summer camp.

“You don’t need to think your church is too small to do this,” Tami says. “We started with 20 children. God said to me, ‘Plant these seeds of faith and I will send the children.’ He is going to bless it if you will open your church to the little children for his kingdom.”

Summer camp has enabled new children’s ministry opportunities at Immanuel year-round. On Wednesday nights, the church hosts a children’s small group event called Kidz Net, where they feed 88 children a light supper and do a Bible study.

"Once people realize your church is loving and caring, it will open up a whole new avenue of outreach for you," Tami says.

Ultimately, Holy Mackerel has changed lives of both parents and kids, and Tami looks forward to working with other churches with a heart for releasing the Word of God to children and creating precious, life-long memories.

“Gabriel really enjoyed his time spent at Holy [Mackerel],” says a mother named Ruth Ann. “It was really amazing when we were looking in the Bible one night and he asked me where ‘Seek ye first’ was. I knew then that I made a good call when I enrolled him in this camp … We will definitely send him back next summer.”

Learn more at Holy Kidz Summer Camps.

In February, Frank and Teri McAllister notified their All Saints church family in Newport, North Carolina, that their daughter Melissa had been hospitalized for a lung infection. Melissa has Cystic Fibrosis, and her lung infection required treatment of intravenous antibiotics. She also needed polyps from Cystic Fibrosis removed from her sinuses, which usually requires surgery on an outpatient basis.

However, when doctors examined Melissa, they saw a more serious problem. They determined she needed a CT scan of her sinuses, and after the scan was conducted, the doctors discovered that bone was chipped away in her upper sinus cavity. That required a subsequent MRI.

“The doctors were in a panic because they discovered a hole in her sinus cavity that left her brain exposed to infection,” Frank says. “Left untreated, it could result in her brain moving, infections or possibly Meningitis.”

The doctors sent Melissa home from the hospital to complete her therapy of antibiotics for the lung and sinus infection, with a plan to expedite the surgery as soon as they could get her on the schedule. The surgery was scheduled for March 7, and on that day, Frank, Teri, Melissa’s boyfriend Jay and Melissa went to the hospital in Chapel Hill.

In pre-op, the doctors briefed the family that the surgery would remove the polyps and explained how the hole would be repaired at that time. As they stood gathered around Melissa, the doctors asked, “Does anyone have any questions?” Frank asked if the family could pray for Melissa prior to surgery. The doctors replied that they didn’t mind.

“Teri thought that all of the doctors would step out of the area; however, no one moved,” Frank recalls. “During the prayer I asked Jesus to watch over Melissa and guide the doctor’s hand during surgery.”

Later that evening, the doctors came to Melissa’s room and told the family that the surgery had gone well. It was late at night so they didn’t offer any details, but the next day the doctors told Melissa she could be released. The medical intern came into the room and explained that when Melissa was in surgery, they had removed all the polyps and the huge amount of infection that was present in her sinus cavity, but when they went in to repair the hole in her sinus cavity—which had been the size of a 50-cent piece—it had healed on its own.

“I have a friend who is a physician’s assistant, and I asked him if it is normal for the bone to heal itself,” Frank says. “He said, ‘NOT THAT FAST.’ That is when we knew we had witnessed a miracle.”

They prayed at her bedside before surgery, but Frank believes the miracle began two weeks earlier in an All Saints’ Sunday school classroom, where Melissa and Teri attend a First Place for Health Bible study on Tuesday mornings. The morning of February 21, Teri went to pick up Melissa for the study. Melissa told her mother she was very ill, had been up coughing for the last several hours and probably needed to go to the hospital. However, she insisted they still attend the study since she had completed the workbook for that week. She was going and that was that.

They drove an hour to the church, and Melissa slept all the way there. She told the group she was very sick and hoped she didn’t have to go to the hospital, though Teri knew from experience that she would.

The group all laid hands on Melissa and prayed for Jesus to heal her. On the way home, Melissa called the doctor’s office, and they put her on a list to be admitted to the hospital later that day. Little did she know that despite feeling so sick, God’s healing process had already begun.

“It was exactly two weeks to the day that the hole in her sinus cavity was healed,” Frank says. “Thanks be to God.”

Learn more at All Saints.

In a city known as a church-planting graveyard, a one-year-old church plant in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood is thriving despite the odds. The reason, says Light of Christ Anglican’s the Rev. Jennifer Roach, is that they’re not actually all that new. The draw to their church is the ancient liturgy, use of the Book of Common Prayer for worship, and connecting with older traditions—all of which give Light of Christ a grounding presence.

“A lot of people have tried to put together a church that’s the most creative or the most new or the most artsy,” she explains. “I feel like it doesn’t work long term. A lot of those are dead churches now because it’s centered around something so brand new; they just started it five minutes ago.”

Ancient roots also mean there’s no need to run after every fad. Light of Christ holds simple weekly worship services in a space they rent.

“We have our own creative bent, but we have a center weight that keeps us from just being the next little fad church,” Jennifer says. “It’s not something people are coming to because it’s hip and cool but because it’s older and deeper.”

The liturgy particularly appeals to a congregation composed of graduate students in their 20s and 30s, a group of families and a handful of homeless people—a cross-section of Seattle residents who describe themselves as spiritual but not religious. One grad student confided in Jennifer that she’d been through a lot with the church and was ready to walk away for good, but the liturgy made her feel safe.

“I think it’s because the ancient liturgy is not just someone’s craziness they’ve thought up about how to get you into church,” Jennifer says. “We’re not pulling out of our bag of tricks – the newest, shiniest thing.”

Of course, Light of Christ still innovates to appeal to the neighborhood’s diverse demographics. Jennifer has been known to use her talent for fire-breathing to witness to passerby on the beach.

“We’re trying to expand that in ways that make sense, growth that makes sense for us and actually fits into our neighborhood, rather than trying to grow for numbers alone,” she says.

That organic growth is happening in a few other ways. One is through a partnership with another local church that hosts a catered community dinner complete with music, a working artist and a short message about Jesus. Mostly homeless people attend, and many of them have found their way to Light of Christ—like Cory, a man who has been on the streets 15 years.

“He’s the kind of chronically homeless person who society says is beyond transformation,” Jennifer says. “Recently he was super excited because he saved his money and bought a really nice Bible. He had an old paperback Bible he’d been carrying around in his knapsack for years, and he showed it to me and said, ‘I am going to donate this one.’ I said, ‘Oh yeah? Who are you going to donate it to?’ He said, ‘To you… you’re my church.’ So we used his old, tattered-up Bible as our gospel reading book, which he got the biggest kick out of.”

In addition to loving their neighbors and what they each contribute to the body, as the Easter season approached, Jennifer decided to engage the community through a non-threatening spiritual exercise: a prayer walk.

“We created stations that contained instructions about ways to pray,” she says. “For example, we had a bucket of water and rocks. We invited people to name something they wanted to let go of and let it plop down into the bucket of water. It’s the same idea as the Stations of the Cross.”

Jennifer says that through the ancient liturgy, last week's Easter services and the rich tapestry of their Anglican heritage, she senses God working as they plug along, dealing with all of “the first year church plant craziness.”

“The thing that is blessing me the most is the people who come who are saying things like, ‘I’ve given up on church. I haven’t been in three or four years, and this form of worship feels like something I can access.’”

Learn more at Light of Christ Seattle.