The Wonder at First Baptist
Saturday, May 21, 2005
First Baptist of SF was a church much like any other: Sunday mornings with a praise band, great preaching, and a thriving Wednesday night Bible Study Ministry. I had attended this church once before during an urban ministry trip spring break of my sophomore year at Wheaton. Now I was here again, literally hours after my plane had landed in SF for my internship. The church had started a tradition of having a church potluck on Wednesday nights before Bible Studies or Youth Groups began with the involved church members bringing dishes to share with each other. It was all going swimmingly until.... the homeless folks of the neighborhood discovered it.
The homeless folks in SF know a regular circuit of shelters and ministries where they can get meals fairly regularly. They caught wind of a potluck at First Baptist and crashed the party! What do you do? Send them away, refer them to a shelter, or stop your church's potluck? This church stopped to consider what God was doing and how to love these people that God had brought to their church door.
First Baptist ended up opening their doors and embracing the homeless folks to feed them, and feed them well! Darren Prince mediated the dinner that night while church people donated resources for food, and the church people cooked up a BBQ chicken, mashed potato, salad, and fruit dinner with hot drinks on the side. I sat at a table in wonder as the street people; homeless, druggies, alcoholics, and rejects were welcomed in to a dinner table set for them - by the church. I sat at a table with Jeremiah "Jerry" and talked for an hour straight about life in SF, Mormonism, baseball and Wrigley Field, why he is on the streets, and his take on Jesus' parable of the wheat and the tares. I learned much from this streetwise and spiritually wise man who took to the streets to live until his pension kicks in. Pray for Jerry, that his knowledge of Christ will deepen as he attends a Bible Study at First Baptist after Wednesday night dinners.
Father, how often do I miss or simply ignore the people that you bring into my life every day when I am busy with my "primary ministry" that always seems so important? My ministry is to love the people that you bring into my life everyday, not my agenda for accomplishing tasks. May I never take my mission for granted, or grasp too tightly my plans for the future, but remain in a posture of listening and obedience. Amen.
Posted by Benjamin Washam 2:05 AM
Labels: Ecclesiology, San Francisco
