Single Encounter-s
By Guest Blogger (Summer 2010 VA Beach United Methodist Church Intern) Becky Copeland
Circles of Influence
Last week, our church had an announcement about the Single Mom’s book club up on the sign out front in the resort area. Two women, evidently tourists, were deeply offended that a church would not only have something for single moms, but would go so far as to advertise it for all the world to see. As they walked down the street asking why on earth a church would put something like that on a sign, a friend of mine waiting at the bus stop happened to overhear.
My friend does not attend my church’s Sunday morning services. He does come out to help with urban ministries whenever he can get time off from work at a job members of our church helped him to get last year. Homeless himself, he joins with others who are currently homeless in performing random acts of community service on Saturdays. Usually soft-spoken, those ladies must have touched a nerve for him to speak up.
He told them that they don’t know the folks at that Methodist church the way he does. The folks at the Methodist church have really big hearts, he said, and they’d put something like that up on a sign because they know that there are a lot of women trying to make it, raise a family without a man. They’d put it right there on the sign so those women would know there was someplace they could go, someplace where they wouldn’t be judged.
Rather than storm off in a huff, the ladies talked to my friend about the church and Christianity. Maybe they learned a little more about grace. Hearing this story from my friend after we had spent an hour picking up trash with other people who are currently or formerly homeless, I thought about the expanding circles formed when you drop a stone into a pond. Our church assisted my friend, who in turn has assisted countless others. On that day, he was able to provide a compelling witness about the heart of our church and the real meaning of Christianity.
Building disciples is what we’re doing, in and out of the Church! You just never know when it will take root.
It seems your friend gets the idea that we are trying to “be the church.” Good for him for speaking up! I am increasingly impressed by how many of the homeless whom we have assisted have “paid it forward” both in deeds and in words.