Faith into Action...

I've waited 5 long years to have the opportunity to teach my son Joey about sports.  From Soccer to Baseball to Basketball he gets so excited just play and participate in "Big Boy" stuff.  Honestly, I get the same way because I get to pass on the knowledge that I've accrued over my lifetime on to him.  Believe it or not, I was a pretty good athlete.  I played football and baseball in High School, not to mention that I was a pretty good scratch basketball player.  I dabble in golf as well shooting in the upper 80's to low 90's, but I'm far from perfection.  The excitement that I get from teaching is a direct reflection of my coaches and father that taught me.  They all loved teaching what they knew in order to help me succeed and that's the same joy I feel each time Joey and I play in the backyard and there's nothing better than watching him get it.  Outside of sports, for me at this current time in my life, there's not much else (other than discipline and school) that I can pass on to my son, so you can imagine my excitement, especially when it's something that I am vested in.

As Christians and as a church we often don't show our faith often outside the walls.  We listen and learn from our pastors about how to be spiritually and socially active in sharing our faith, but we all know that sometimes those moments come few and far between because we are so busy and focused on something else.  It's not that we don't want to do the work , it's more because we haven't conditioned our minds to be multi-tasking within God's spirit.  I call it being sensitive to the Holy Spirit and when I say this I mean it in a more developed kind of way.  For instance, when witnessing to someone you're able to do more than just tell a person about God and understand where they're coming from.  Knowing how point someone in the right direction rather than just quoting scripture (some folks may not like this, but this is how I feel).  From time to time pastors will talk of their personal encounters of when they witness and teach off of that, but almost never do they put their examples into action and show you.

My wife and I attend Graystone Church in Loganville, GA and on September 2nd our entire church has an opportunity to put what we've learned, our faith, into action.  On that day we'll gather for a short worship service and then split into different groups armed with different projects and go into our community and Serve.  From helping local families to cleaning our community parks to making care packages for local police and firemen, we, the body of Christ, get to place our faith in action by physically serving all we come into contact with by showing our faith instead of talking about it. 

I recently posted a blog entry entitled Action Reflects Leadership which talks about how training is an important asset in all walks of life.  Graystone has been a catalyst in the lives of thousands of people in the Grayson area through dynamic worship and teachings and now they're taking it one step further by sending us out into the community to put our Faith into Action...