On January 10th, we launched our 10th COMMUNITY Campus . . . the long awaited and prayed for bilingual EAst Auora Campus. Click here to read about the opening day on Dave Ferguson's blog. I waited until after the 2nd week to make my public comments, because the first week is all the hype and excitement and inflated numbers due to encouraging and curious visitors. But it's the second week when the real work begins . . . the tireless but invigorating journey of helping people find their way back to God. One relationship at a time. We've dreamed for a long time, 6 years to be exact, about having this campus with weekly services in East Aurora. A place to invite our friends and neighbors who are are looking for a safe place to explore what it means to be a Christ follower. But where most of those people are going to find their way back to God is not in those weekly services, but through relationships that develop outside of the services. Through the conversations that happen over a cup of coffee (or horchata) in the hospitality area or in the living room or kitchens of people's homes during small groups.
So, while everyone wanted to know how many people showed up that first week, I was much more interested in how many people would come back the second week. And for our second week, nearly everyone from the community that came the first week came back, as well as a few more new people. So, while not as many seats were filled for our second week, those that were were filled with people who found something, or someone, that inspired them to come back. Eventually that someone will be Jesus himself, but for a while, Jesus will take the form of Kathy or Obe or Romas or Carolynn or Lynn or Anna or Isreal or anyone else who has left the friends and comfort of another COMMUNITY campus or church to help make this new campus a safe and welcoming place. If I'm lucky, Jesus will choose to use me to lead someone to Him. We will work in the coming weeks to fill more of the seats in our service, but I hope we will work even harder to build relationships with the people God has already brought us.
