A Church that Serves (Part 2)

It’s interesting to me that there is a debate in the Christian circles about the role of service in local churches. Although I value of intense discourse in the Christian community, I am a bit frustrated at the tone. One camp says that good works by themselves do not communicate the message of the gospel. The other group argues that we best display God’s love through service. I would argue that both are true!

There is nothing more important to me than Jesus and his unconditional love shown on the cross. Without the cross there is no forgiveness from sin, and without the resurrection there is no life abundant. The key is that, the cross was the ULTIMATE ACT OF SERVICE! In the cross we see both the good news and service, they simply go hand in hand. There is no either/or, but rather a both/and. At Vertical Church we want to make sure that we love with unrelenting service and communicate God’s truth at the same time.

We hope to continue sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the Historic West End/Vine City communities by:

- Mobilizing Atlanta University Center (AUC) college students to serve their community, logging over 750 community service hours

- Encouraging team members to relocate to the community

- Building on our strategic relationship with North Metro GNETS, a local K-12 school, and meet real needs in literacy, mentoring, training, staff care, and facility improvements

-Adopting single parent families for the holidays, school needs, and ongoing developmental opportunities

-Sending at least 20 college age students(18-25 year olds) to one of the largest, most powerful Christian gatherings in the US in January 2013 (Passion Conference www.268generation.com)

-Actively participate in key community revitalization efforts and offer assistance where needed

-Sending at least 7 college students and adults to teach conversational English in China for 5-6 weeks in summer through one of our partnering Christian organizations

-Building up a pool of life coaches to begin to offer life purpose training for college students and young adults

-Blessing the local businesses, neighborhoods, colleges, government, schools and organizations with random acts of kindness