If you thought about it -- and maybe I'm the only one who did -- it might have struck you as kind of odd that we devoted an entire Sunday to preparing and packing 285,000 meals for people in Haiti while we are in the middle of a message series called The Value Of A Soul. Because that food, after all, will feed bodies.  And in a certain way of looking at the message series, we're minimizing bodies to focus on rescuing souls. So why did we do what we did?  Here are five reasons; reasons that I hope and pray show how our theology (#5 especially!) aligns with our strategy. 1. Radical Impact Projects -- the big and the bold on behalf of the lost and the least -- are a signature of Good Shepherd Church.  Over the last five years, we have raised enormous sums of money to battle human trafficking, we have fed folks in Uganda & Guatemala, and we've collected massive numbers of shoe boxes through Operation Christmas Child.  But our new Zoar Campus had yet to experience what it means for a church to radically impact the world.  So as that campus passed its six month mark, we knew it was time to schedule one project that we could do on two campuses. 2. The souls inhabiting Haitian bodies can better hear a message of salvation once stomachs are full. 3. There is almost never a wrong time to get 100% volunteer engagement on a Sunday. 4. We wanted to provide an opportunity for the different cultures, colors, languages, and generations that make up Good Shepherd to serve, side-by-side and shoulder-to-shoulder.  5. Theologically, we see very little distinction between bodies and souls.  Huh?  Won't we all "fly away" as the gospel classic sings?  Actually, no.  The hope of the Christian faith is NOT your disembodied soul flying in the clouds of heaven for eternity  It is instead your resurrected body -- a body that is imperishable, but a body nonetheless -- to reign with King Jesus forever in the new heavens and the new earth.  Paul puts it this way in I Corinthians 15:42-44 and 15:51-54: ⁴² So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; ⁴³ it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; ⁴⁴ it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. ⁵¹ Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— ⁵² in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³ For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. ⁵⁴ When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” So the meals we prepared are but a foretaste of the heavenly banquet at which our resurrected bodies will dine in everlasting love.

Yesterday . . . 2500 people . . . On two campuses . . .   Packed this many meals now headed for Haiti . . .   Which means that overall we've packed ONE MILLION meals as a church.  A milestone I celebrated with a backhand gong bang.  

Frequently Asked Questions What Are We Doing? We are harnessing all our Sunday morning people and energy and campuses to prepare and package over 280,000 Meals Ready To Eat (MREs). Where Is All This Food Going To End Up? After we prepare and package the meals, Stop Hunger Now will ship them to hurricane-stricken regions of Haiti. Why Aren’t We Having Church? We ARE having church. We are worshipping by feeding. Instead of hearing a sermon, we are the sermon. Have We Ever Done This Before On A Sunday Morning? Twice!  In 2011, we packaged 192,000 meals on an October Sunday called Fed Up With Hunger and in 2014 we packaged 254,000 as part of a series called Food For Thought. Taking those two Sundays and then adding the other times we have done meal packing days (usually First Serve Saturdays) this coming Sunday means that we will as a congregation pass the one million meal mark with Stop Hunger Now.  As you might expect, that is a milestone worth celebrating! Will We Have An Offering Sunday? Yes. Please look for greeters with giving baskets as on a usual Sunday. The first $85,000 of today’s offering goes to this project to pay for the food products and the shipping. What About My Kids? Children & youth 1st grade and up will be your co-laborers in the Worship Center this morning. For space and safety sake, we ask that parents take infants and pre-schoolers  to their normal Sunday morning space in the K-Zone where there will be age specific service projects. Our nursery area will function as normal. What Should I Wear?  Dress casually.  Because the Worship Center will be a food processing area, hygeine is critical.  You'll be given gloves and a hair net. Will I Be Standing The Whole Time?  Some people will. There are also many work stations available for people who need to sit.  On our previous Stop Hunger Now Sundays, people in their 90s have worked alongside children and teens. I Thought This Series Was About the "Value Of A Soul"?  We can't very well value people's souls without first valuing their bodies and ministering to those who are hungry.  Plus . . . at the end of the day (and the day of the end!), New Testament faith is more about the resurrection of the body than the immortality of a disembodied soul. How Does This Fit In With Inviting All People Into A Living Relationship With Jesus Christ? Inviting All People is our big “what.” Our strategic “how” involves LifeGroups, Serve Teams, Worship Gatherings, and Radical Impact Projects. Sunday is a Radical Impact Project. Where And When, Again?  There are three "shifts" at Moss:  8:30, 10, and 11:30.  We will have two shifts at Zoar:  10 and 11:30.  

I received this poignant note on the back of a Connection Card this past Sunday.  The author is a guy who, along with his wife, has been driving over an hour each way to get to Good Shepherd on a Sunday morning. My family has been coming to this church for about 10 years now, but unfortunately this will be our last week to attend.  We were blessed to sell our current home and purchase a bigger one that meets our needs, but it's located in Spartanburg County (two hours away).  I will miss Good Shepherd and the people in it.  I"ve grown so much spiritually thanks to this church.  From being baptized to dedicating my youngest son, the church will always have a special place in my heart.  I pray I can find another church down there and that our move goes well.  Thank you, love you, love God, love Good Shepherd. So on the one hand I hate to have to say good-bye to nice people like that. But on the other hand, how priceless is it to hear that this community is impacting people's lives to a greater degree than we know?  

On Sunday, I (briefly) announced a new initiative at Good Shepherd called #Invite9000. Huh? Well, here are the top five things you need to know about the project and, more importantly, how you can become part of it over the next twelve months.   1. It's a challenge for the people of the church to do less "cheering" of our mission and more "owning" of it.  Now:  the people of Good Shepherd love our mission statement of inviting all people into a living relationship with Jesus Christ.  We repeat it, we post it, we teach it and in turn the congregation itself knows it gives us both focus and clarity. Yet when it comes to the "inviting" piece of the mission, we have realized that the majority of folks who call Good Shepherd home cheer when others invite but seldom own the inviting process themselves.  So we asked ourselves:  "what would it look like if the people of the church didn't just belong to an inviting church but became inviters themselves?"  The answer:  #Invite9000. 2. The "9000" comes from a combination of estimation and extrapolation.  We average right at 2,000 attenders per Sunday between Moss Rd, Zoar Rd, and Latino.  We figure that 2,000 comes from at least 3,000 folks kindergarten and above who call this church home on at least a semi-regular basis.  So how about a challenge for every person who calls this church home to issue at least three invitations in the coming year to folks not connected to church at all?  The invites could be to Sunday worship, LifeGroup, ServeTeam, or outreach event.  So:  3,000 people x three invites (and even I can do this math) = 9,000.  Hence #Invite9000. 3.  We gotta have a web page to keep track.  So we created one.  Where you can very quickly log in and record your invites.  The page automatically keeps a running tally.  Only three days in to the public phase of #Invite9000 and we already have 172 invites given.  Click on the link here.   4.  Hands-on resources are the center of our inviting strategy.  We know it is much easier to invite people into church life if you have something tangible to hand them.  That's why this past Sunday we distributed the Stop Hunger Now cards for people to use in inviting friends and family to serve with us at this week's Radical Impact Project.  It's why we'll distribute "movie tickets" for our Value Of A Soul short film Sunday on November 20.  And it's why for our Christmas series ... well, I'm so excited about that inviting tool that I don't want to give it away today.  Just know that the series is called God Drops and we're combining that title with an unforgettable -- and tasty -- way to invite people you love to be  part of what we're doing. 5. We invite not to fill seats but to populate heaven.  That's what an invitational push is all about.  We're not about the preservation of an institution but the salvation of souls.  That's why we want all the invited to become inviters.