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Divine Appointments
Posted by Roger Ferrell in Uncategorized
Dear friends,
So you’re working tonight and missing the Super Bowl. Sure, some of you could care less about football, but some of you are raving Giants fans. Or raving Patriots fans. And some of you have been waiting for the Falcons to win the Super Bowl (in which place we really feel bad for you!) Tonight things may be slow and boring, or if you are working in a restaurant that has TVs, maybe extra hectic, with lots of fans hanging out for hours. So we were just thinking of you, because our church feels a special calling to encourage people who work retail. Cause retail’s tough. And we’ve been there.
So we are here to bring you joy and just let you know you are loved and appreciated. We hope that you have a great time this evening and that you take joy in God’s love for you. We pray that customers will be kind, that coworkers will be encouraging, and that your bosses will be supportive (and forgiving!)
Have a great evening!
Woodland Creek Church Joy Team
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This was the note we passed out with little bags of candy, wrapped with ribbon, last Sunday night. A group of our church folks walked around a huge outdoor mall for two hours spreading joy to workers at On The Border, The Gap, and Famous Footwear. These guys have committed to help plant a new church site at The Avenues at Webb Gin, a retail center in Lawrenceville, Georgia about 20 minutes from our church in Dacula. I’ve already talked on the blog about how our church got into multi-site ministry, but don’t think mega-church satellites like at Northpointe or LifeChurch. Our church started two years ago and has about 85 people in attendance. And we have about 15 of these folks involved in planting the site at Webb Gin. This is a small thing, done with great love, and we will grow as we go, one person at a time.
We’ve been laying the groundwork for a few weeks, training our folks in building relationships and sharing their faith, and last week began reaching out, or “spreading joy” as we call it, to retail workers. This is, I believe, one of the largest unreached people groups in North America. Folks who work retail are on a different schedule each week, so they find it hard to participate in traditional churches. Not only do retailers have to work every other or every Sunday morning, but almost everyone who works retail has to work different nights of the week. This varying schedule makes church attendance difficult, and small group or bible study participation infrequent at best.
So God put it on our hearts to reach retail people for Christ. And we prayed this past Sunday when we went out again at 5 PM that God would go ahead of us and give us divine appointments. We divided into 3 teams, loaded up bags of candy, tracts and flyers, and headed out.
I took my team to Bonefish Grill, then down the row, to the jewelry store, the T-shirt shop and then to Chico’s, a women’s clothing store, where I spoke to Marcia (pronounced mar-see-ah), the manager there. We had met a couple of weeks before and she thanked me for bringing candy to her employees on Super Bowl Sunday. She then told me that it was good of us to come back to encourage them, considering they had a memorial service that night for one of their other managers, Judy, who had died two weeks ago. I told Marcia I was sorry for their loss, and asked if there was anything I could do. “Do you sing?” she asked. I told her I did. “Would you come to the memorial service and lead us in ‘Amazing Grace’? It was Judy’s favorite song.” I told her I would.
At 7:00 that night, after joining our crew for a quick dinner, I went back to Chico’s to join about 25 employees for Judy’s memorial service. It was then I found out that Judy had killed herself. That was a shock. And then I found out that, though she suffered from clinical depression, she was appreciated and loved by those who worked with her. Each employee shared their memories of Judy, as did other managers from other stores, and the district manager. Marcia asked me to share a few words, but warned me in a whisper not to mention Jesus as it was against corporate policy. I talked about God creating each of us with a purpose, and that we would be wise to find out what that is, and that he wants our lives to be a blessing to Him and to each other. We closed by singing “Amazing Grace” again and when it was over, I met everyone. They all thanked me for coming and several indicated an interest in our church.
I’m not sure I said enough. I’m not sure I said the right things. But I am glad God allowed me to be there, to meet these folks and share their loss.
This story is not yet finished. I don’t know what God will do next week or next year in the lives of these people, or how He will use this time we shared Sunday night in the spreading of the gospel. But I am grateful for divine appointments, that only come when we are willing to get out there and share the love of Jesus with others.
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Roger,
This is a great idea with a great testimony “taboot”. (Selah should get that, hehe.)
Really, this is one of the most awe-inspiring things I have read on the web in a very long time. The idea of reaching out to retail workers on Sunday evening, Super Bowl Sunday evening, is an idea I would have never thought of!
I never cease to be amazed at the awesome power of God, particularly through His servants. Retail workers being an unreached people group–again, I never thought of it that way. I always worry about what retail life does to church life, especially young people because typically they get jobs where they have to be available to that job whenever they are scheduled, regardless of church.
At sixteen most teens get licenses and jobs and out the church door they go. Our best response is usually just to fret over it and hope and pray for “the best.” This give me a concrete idea to help “combat” this problem. Thanks brother!
Roger,
This was a great idea.
One of the things I love about Southern Baptists is that we have 44,000 churches all doing their own thing as God gives them guidance. All of those “little things” add up to great things for the cause of Christ.
David R. Brumbelow
Tony,
Actually, most of the retail places closed at 6 PM, so they did not even have to miss the Super Bowl, and neither did we – we invited our Webb Gin crew over to our house for fellowship and to watch the game after our ministry time. But even though the folks working retail did not miss the game, just the idea of us being concerned about them meant a lot to them. Folks were and are really touched when they know we are thinking about them and do care.
If I really liked watching football, we probably never would have done this.
The retail folks have it tough. When we were serving in Maine, all the stores opened at 10 AM on Sundays. Here in Georgia, they open at 12 for now, but I see that changing in the future. So it is good for churches to send teams to serve these folks on Sundays particularly. It seems to have an impact.
David,
I’d rather be doing little things with great love, than great things with little love. I get lost in the details of huge campaigns and plans. This little outreach in right up my alley and I am loving being a part of it.
And I love hearing on this blog all the other “little things” our other churches are doing.
Roger: what an inspiring idea! Thanks for sharing it. As we all share our ideas, we find some we can implement in our own church situations. This is one that plants the seeds and we pray for you that they grow in the grace of the Lord. selahV
Roger,
Great story! That really inspired me. Would it be possible to have a short church service after work on Sunday evenings, say at 6:30 pm, in the mall for those workers who were not able to get off for Sunday church? I wonder if a mall would let you do such a thing, or if anyone would be interested in that?
Again, great story. It is awesome to see where God is working. Thank you for being obedient to Him.
I’d also love to read more about how you are planting a church with 85 people and sending 15 to do a church plant. That is amazing. Our church has around 250 people and we do not want to be a mega church, but rather, we desire to start new churches. I’ve been waiting for us to get over 350 or so to start another church, but I would love to do it sooner. Of course, we’d all have to change quite a bit.
Grace to you.
Selah,
Thanks for the affirmation. And especially thanks for your prayers.
Alan,
That is exactly what we are planning to do! We are negotiating with a restaurant in The Avenues at Webb Gin to hold an informal service there on Sunday nights. We will start in a few weeks, but will continue right on inviting and ministering to working people before the service.
On church planting, no better time than the present. Do what you can do with what you have: give, go, share resources or your building, or cluster plant with several other small churches. It does require a change of heart and schedule to plant churches, but it is all worth it. If I can be of help, let me know. I do a training process here in our association (where I serve as the Church Planting Strategist) called Becoming A Church-Planting Church. Perhaps there is similar training available where you are from your association or state convention.
[...] written on “divine appointments” here before (http://www.sbcimpact.net/2008/02/12/divine-appointments/). But as I read Kevin’s prayer letter this week, it struck me that some of us have more [...]