I pastor one of the oldest Churches of God in the denomination (founded 1913), and one of the smallest, I imagine (I call it a micro-church). We are in one of the poorest counties in Florida, and our town, Jasper, was called The Dumbest Town in Florida by some internet folks due to it having such a low graduation rate, etc. I call our church The Finest Little Church in Florida.A lot of things that have worked well at other churches don't get the same response here. We once put together a slideshow of grandparents (we had Grandparents' Day) and the soundtrack wouldn't play. In most church, that would have been utterly embarrassing. And it was for me; but afterwards, people were acting like this little, very amateurish presentation was just amazing. Yeah. In any case, on Saturday, we had a cookout. We have a few, older white members...and a good number of black children that come to church. Their parents will come on occasion. In any case, last week the parents of some of the children came for the first time. They also came to the cookout. One of those black fathers--had been to church only once--invited a friend of his to cookout.Long story short, as us guys stood around the grill shooting the breeze, this invitee mentioned how he needed to get back to the Lord. He promised to come to church the next day.He did. I borrowed Paul Miller from the Live Oak Church of God to preach for me that Sunday (thanks Pastor Tanksley), since with the cookout and all, I didn't feel I'd have adequate time to be fully prepared. That guy? He got saved. I'm not saying this to brag. I know better than to boast of such things, since things can change so quickly from being on top to dragging the bottom. But I am going to TESTIFY of this. I just give the Lord praise that something so small and simple could have such a wonderful effect...because of Jesus.Further, I have began to wonder if the maybe the key to reaching some in this community is just old-fashioned let's get together and eat. The week before last, the children stayed after church to rehearse for the upcoming Easter performance. Their parents, some who had never been here before, came to church with them and stayed afterward, preparing spaghetti for the children, since we feed them when they stay over (remember, this is a poor place and the folks are often poor--but how sweet they are).
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