It's so easy to tear down and bad mouth "the church." We can say some pretty mean stuff about our local church, an organization, and even "the church" in general.
What can you say positive about your local church?
My home church is called The Hamilton Dream Center.
Our web site is:
http://www.hamiltondreamcenter.com/
Our goal is to restore lost dreams to people and to bring hope to the inner city of Hamilton, Ohio.
There are so many good things to say it's hard to decide what to include here.
We are a very informal church. People can come as they are and we welcome them without judging them. We preach Jesus to them. We tell them that He loves them, can change their lives, give them a new start, give meaning and purpose to their lives, and will help them on a daily basis to face whatever comes their way.
We are diverse. White, Hispanic, and African Americans worship together.
We have a pastor who loves kids. Kids love him. He knows the names of kids who have been part of that church family for years and kids who come on the bus. He speaks at local schools and at the juvenile facility.
We reach out to people. Earlier this fall we gave out hundreds of back packs filled with school supplies. Now we are giving out coats to children. Last year when some of those children came to church with dirty coats, our youth pastor took the dirty coats next door and had them washed and dried and ready for those kids when they went home. These giveaways are not limited to "church folks" or "members of our church."
We do outreach on Saturday mornings. This past weekend the area I was assigned to is part of the metropolitan housing. We went to all 28 apartments in that area and knocked on doors. At 17 there was no answer. One we skipped because the lady there works nights and just gets home and in bed about the time we get there. We gave candy to lots of kids and invited them to Sunday School and Wednesday Super Kids Church. At three or four places we were allowed in to pray for people. I went back to two of them afterward with groceries. At one place we delivered clothing for a baby. Recently we delivered clothing for some older children in that apartment. The grandmother, who is in a wheel chair, has responsibility for 3 grandchildren but does not have custody. The mother is absent somewhere. Because the grandmother does not have custody she cannot receive assistance for the children. So, in the spirit of
Matthew 25:31-46 our little group of 4 people in that little part of the city of Hamilton visited, fed, encouraged, and clothed Jesus by visiting, feeding, encouraging, and clothing people.
Other areas in the city are visited by other teams. We even go to three motels where transients are staying and knock on doors. We pray with any of them who will let us. We give them food if they need it. And we provide them a way to church. We also try to let them know about agencies where they can receive further help.
On Sunday mornings we have breakfast available for people between Sunday School and morning service. For some that's the only breakfast they will get that day. We have separate Kids Church for little ones and for those a little older during the latter part of the service. Some times the kids go to a nearby nursing home to minister during the morning service.
On Wednesday nights, we have three services going on. In the auditorium we have Super Kids Church with up to 100 children Our pastor is in charge of that. We have a youth service with 35-50 teenagers which is led by our Youth Pastor. And we have an adult Bible Study Class. I teach the adult class and since most of the adults are involved with the kids or youth we only have from 5 to a 12 people in that class. We take time to pray for each individual who expresses a need and we teach from the Word. Before the services, we feed those children. Usually it's pizza and some times it's hot dogs.
I don't go to a perfect church and the people there are not perfect. That's good because if the church was perfect and the people there were perfect they wouldn't let me in.
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