Church is NOT a Building
28 One of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the debate. He realized that Jesus had answered well, so he asked, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” 29 Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. 30 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ 31 The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” – Mark 12:28-31 (NLT)
LOVE
Oh, how I absolutely love our “Love Your Neighbor” BBQ’s!! What a blessing and a privilege to hang out with the volunteers who come to help and the residents from the hotels here in town. Our volunteers range from a young school teacher and her 2 sons, a group of mentally challenged adults, retirees, business owners, several recovered drug addicts and alcoholics, college students and many others – all sharing the same desire to serve Jesus and others. I have to say that people who are willing to give up a Sunday afternoon (in the overly busy society that we live in) to invest in the poor here among us are people I feel honored to spend my time with. God has so much to say in his Holy Word about loving and helping the poor – how we are to be the hands and feet of Jesus by fellowshipping together. How blessed I am to get to hang out with people who don’t just talk about it but actually live it. So many of our volunteers work jobs, have families and serve in other areas but yet, there they were, eating, loving and laughing with those whom society considers as outcasts. How pleased God must have been.
I have to admit that most of my Christian life (approx. 25 years) I thought that serving in the Church meant serving in the church building – loving those who came to “us”. I guess the word most commonly used is “seekers”. As “seekers” entered our building, we commonly stand out front to say “welcome” and hand them a bulletin. Next we walk them to their seats and when it’s over, we smile and invite them to come back next week. We serve coffee, offer camps for people to bring their children to, invite “seekers” to small groups in our homes, help with kids events or an occasional “big”event, go to work and raise our families. This is how I lived my life ever since I accepted Jesus at the age of 18. Not that any of that was wrong, but for me it was very comfortable. Most of my friends were like me – young Christian families helping at school, going to sporting events and hanging out together. I guess this is most commonly referred to as “The American Dream”. My house was comfortable, my car was comfortable and quite honestly, my life was comfortable. Not to say I didn’t have problems – I did go through a divorce and having raised 4 kids, of course there were many issues, but as far as my “Christian” life was concerned, it was pretty uneventful and safe. Well, I have to say that by the grace of God, those days of uneventful and safe are coming to an end. I am just now beginning to realize (apparently I am a slow learner) that that is not how Jesus lived his life or how he called us Christians to live ours.
VOLUNTEER SERVING
Becky has a huge heart for people and has been serving with us for almost a year now. Becky has her own seat in one of our vans and would even love to manage a weekly or extended stay motel.
“My name’s Becky Lathrop, I come because on Thursday night’s to be with all these people and to help the homeless and I enjoy it.
WHAT IS CHURCH?

As far as Ghandi goes, he explored Christianity but because of us “Christians” he was rejected. If you recall he is quoted as saying “I don’t reject your Christ. I love your Christ. It’s just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ.” We as Christians have to be careful to Serve: Period! This means serving others without strings attached and without piling any theology or message on top of the work we do with and for others. For once we start meeting the needs of others in order to preach to or try to convert them, our services loses it’s Christlikeness, its authenticity, and its legitimacy. Love with an agenda isn’t really love.
We hope to see you Thursday. (Sadly, this person did not come)
BEING SERVED

Famous Dave’s – Branson

Motel 9 – June 6th, 2010

Motel 9 – June 6th, 2010

Motel 9 – June 6th, 2010

Motel 9 – June 6th, 2010

Motel 9 – June 6th, 2010
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We are in current need of the
PRAYER REQUESTS
![]() Suzette Brawner – Suzette’s dad is battling cancer. My mom & dad, Tom & Carol Stallings – The second surgery went well but continued prayer for healing is still needed. Bryan & Amy Stallings – We currently have our house for sale and would love prayer around if it is God’s will for it to sell. We are wanting to do more in ministry but feel that having a mortgage payment makes it difficult to make a career change.
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CONTACT INFO:
Amy Stallings – 417.335.0266
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