Small Groups as Family

"God sets the lonely in families". (Psalm 68:6)

Sometimes this promise is fulfilled literally when a family adopts a lonely person. Other times the church becomes a person's family. In a large church, one's small group becomes one's family.

I saw this demonstrated a couple of weeks ago at a wedding that took place here. The bride comes from a somewhat chaotic family, and her small group stepped in and put on the wedding for her and her beloved. The couple who hosts this group in their home is especially gifted in all things pertaining to hospitality. At the wedding, the hostess of the Bible study served as wedding coordinator. The host, who has exquisite artistic taste, did the flowers--and what flowers they were! He turned our Fellowship Hall into a real flower garden, utterly transforming it's open, barnlike atmosphere into something really beautiful. And the rest of the group? I found them in the kitchen, preparing the reception, under the direction of a group member who is a gourmet cook. Everyone was attired in aprons, ready to set out the fabulous spread that they had worked together to prepare.

Evidently one of the bride's family was doubtful, even sarcastic about the small group doing anything that would be of reasonable quality. Evidently the cynic didn't know this group: they are quality people who do things well and beautifully to the glory of God. What the Bible study host had done with flowers, they did with food and served a very elegant collation for the wedding guests. It was a gift of love from these good people to one of their own.

It reminded me that the Lord is preparing a wedding feast for us, too. He has, after all, adopted us into His family. If we are invited, it will not be as a guest, it will be as the bride. The Marriage Supper of the Lamb will be the most elegant, beautiful and delicious feast that has ever been prepared. I look forward to being there, to be joined with our Heavenly Bridegroom and to participate in this wonderful feast. Will you be there?

Blood Drive Evangelism

This week the pastoral staff met for our annual retreat in Cape May. It's a wonderful place to be, particularly when the weather is nice, which it was for our stay. We always work hard at this retreat, brainstorming, discussing goals and dreams and problems we need to confront. This year we discussed, among other things, how we could reach out to Center City more effectively.

When we returned home on Tuesday afternoon, the Red Cross Blood Drive at the church was in full swing. I maintain that this is one of the most effective outreaches that we do, inviting neighborhood people into the church to donate blood for the good of the community. Often some of our people have the opportunity to share our faith with our neighbors. "The Christian faith is all about blood", said one of our greeters. This year, Janice Roberts, who heads up the church blood drive, was concerned that so few of our people signed up to donate. The Red Cross had raised our goal to 60 units of blood, and Janice was certain that we needed to have 90 people signed up to get that much. Actually only about 35 Tenth Church people signed up, which left a large gap. Always the conscientious one, Janice went out to the sidewalk at 17th and Spruce and stopped passers-by and asked them to come in and donate blood. She certainly is effective! Here is her report.


Once again we have an answer to prayer! I was so unprepared in terms of the goal that all I could do was pray!

62 were signed up as of the start of the drive. I knew, and the Red Cross knew, that I needed 90 signed up to get our goal of 60 productive units.

Early in the drive it was clear that the street response on Spruce was amazing. So many people volunteered that I could hardly believe it. At 3:45 our Red Cross coordinator came out to ask that I halt the street effort because they couldn't handle the crowd! Wow!

By 4:30 the Head Nurse told me we were on our way to overachieving. Great news and we all knew that the signup numbers were now past speculation.

In the end we had 72 people "presenting;" 6 deferrals, (very low) and only 1 rejected unit of blood. In all we collected 70 productive pints of blood against our goal of 60. ( +17%!) We were also fortunate that the MCS machine gave us an extra 8 units

The Lord will provide

On Sunday, Phil Ryken preached from Luke 12: 22-34, the wonderful passage in which Jesus tells his followers not to be anxious buy rather to seek God's Kingdom and to trust Him to provide for their needs. It set off a whole series of memories for me. It is a passage of Scripture that I have held on to for many years.

Phil gave a great message on that passage and I wrote to him to express my appreciation.

Dear Phil,

Thank you for your sermon on Sunday morning. I was deeply blessed by it and the Lord used it to remind me of His priorities in my life. Among other things, I’m apartment hunting again, and am trying to keep within my current price range. Everything I’ve looked at so far has been way out of my price range, and to take a more expensive apartment would mean cutting back my giving, which would be a real skewing of priorities. Being reminded of the couple who decided against using their funds to buy a bigger house and to send the money to the Schaeffers instead was an illustration that I needed to hear at that point in time.

And the hymns that you chose were right on! The Neumark hymn was practically my theme song as I prayed in the funds to finish college and it brought back memories of my not knowing where the money would come from and God providing at just the right time. "God never yet forsook at need the soul that trusted Him indeed."

The closing hymn (Though troubles assail us and dangers affright...The Lord will provide!") was my theme song during my Florence years. I needed to sing it often and loudly in my devotions as a reminder that I was depending on God’s promises, not on my own efforts. And it was wonderful testimony. I kept an open house for students, travelers, artists and au pair girls. Most of the time people came to meals, Bible studies, or other activities and were content to be welcomed. Occasionally someone would ask, “So who pays for all this?” and I would reply:

“I’m here because God has made some wonderful promises in the Bible to people who will trust him, including to provide for all our needs. He promised to clothe us like He clothes the flowers of the field, and feed us like He feeds the birds of the air. I’m able to be here because I believe that God is true to His word. On the human level, of course, the funds come from people who know I’m here and want to support this work, but I don’t solicit funds, I pray and ask God to move people’s hearts to give. And He has always provided enough for me and enough to share with people like you.”

God does, of course, clothe us like he clothes the flowers of the field. During my Florence years, my wardrobe was a source of embarrassment to my Italian friends, who dress very elegantly. I know I looked like a ragamuffin much of the time. In spring of 1977, the Tenth missions commission invited me to come back for missions week that autumn. My one problem was what would I wear to speak at Tenth Church? At that point I didn’t even own a dress, nor could I afford one, but I prayed and reminded the Lord of His promise to clothe His children. I also went out shopping and found a wonderful dress and put a deposit on it. I came home and told my roommate about it: “But it costs more than I have ever paid for a dress.” (Said she who dressed from thrift shops or else made my own clothes) “But that’s what dresses cost, silly.” So I prayed. About a week later, a gift came from a couple at Tenth Church who had heard exaggerated reports of Cora’s wardrobe from my summer helpers from the year before. “You don’t have to live like a little sister of poverty. Please use this to buy some clothes.” And it paid for the dress. Actually, I still have that dress. It survived the fire in August 2003. I don’t ever want to let go of it, because it is tangible proof that God keeps His promises.

Cora