Being the Church at A Gathering Place

LoveINC is a vehicle that drives Christ’s love, grace, and truth into the community.  Emil Brunner, a theologian, has a great quote saying: “the church exists by mission as fire exists by burning.” What that means for us is that something like COVID-19 cannot shut down the church, because the church is not a building.  The church is people.

We see this often in the way that people are caring for their neighbors in the community through LoveINC.  One example of this comes from A Gathering Place thrift store. Two volunteers at the store, Linda and Susan, met a man, Jay, who happened to stop in the store one day.  Jay worked nearby and had been passing the store on his way to work regularly.  One day, he decided to stop in and see what the store was all about. 

It was obvious to Linda and Susan that Jay was feeling down on the day he stopped in. So, the ladies began loving Jay as best they could, being the church to him and showing him the love of Jesus.  They encouraged him, asked questions about his life, gave him clothes for work, sometimes fed him meals, and even recruited people to help drive him to work so he could keep his job. For a time, Jay was making regular appearances in the store.  And then, all of a sudden, nothing.  For four months, they heard nothing from Jay.

After this four-month silence, Jay comes walking in the store one day, beaming with a huge smile, and praising the Lord that he has a new job and doing well.  He had broken his phone at a previous job and the ladies had been unable to contact him.  They had been worried about what had happened with Jay.

But in he walked into the shop!  He was thanking God that they had taken the opportunity to love and care about him, and even to care about his spiritual health and growth.  Praise God there is story after story like that in the LoveINC ministry and in this community: the church being the hands and feet of Jesus to those who need him.