Making Visits & Thinking about Community

Tomorrow I am heading out and making some visits to some members of our church who cannot be with us due to reasons outside of their control. Some are hospitalized, some are home bound, some find themselves in between but their situation keeps them from joining us for the happenings that are the life of the church. So tomorrow I am going to go out and pay some visits.

I remember moving a fair bit when I was a kid. Going from school to school or house to house you inevitably leave some people that you would call friends behind. I remember vividly thinking on the day of my college graduation that despite the fact that I would call many of these people friends the smart bet was that I would only see a small handful ever again. Life takes you to strange and new places and that is just the way life works. Eventually you settle in, become part of a community and put down roots. You become part of something that feels permanent and your participation in the life of the community is part of what makes the community unique if not great. Churches are communities in their own right and likewise people have the same effect. Yet while communities tend to draw their lines based on geography people are what make up the church. People are the church and so the men and women who worship with us on Sunday and have worshiped with us in the past help make up the very DNA of congregations. Here at Boulevard we are no different. Worship with us once and on that Sunday you are beloved member of this community. Settle here, worship here and serve here and you become a fixture that when you can no longer be a part of the "visible community" here at Boulevard we recognize that something is missing. When people because of the rhythms of life cannot worship, play and serve with us we miss them and so it becomes the job of the entire community to make sure that this absence does not go unrecognized. It becomes all of our jobs to find the places where we can reach out to show care and love to those people who helped make this community great. It is my hope that in the days and weeks to come you will find a way to show love, welcome, and care to those people who cannot be with us as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord.