Feed 1,000 Families

We have the potential to feed thousands of people in Lorain County and you can be a part of making that happen!

We have an excellent opportunity to receive a $25,000 grant from Pepsi Refresh to purchase 1,000 gardens for this year's Serve Elyria.

Grant recipients are determined by the amount of online votes, so we need your help to get those votes!  You can vote three different ways every day in the month of December.  We hope you will take just a few minutes each day to help get as many votes as we can. 

You can make a real difference!

The following website, www.voteopendoor.com, outlines the easy ways you can vote for the project - online, text message, and Facebook.   

3 Ways to Vote in December - Vote Every Way, Every Day!!
To vote through Pepsi: www.refresheverything.com/serveelyria

To vote through text: Text 104402 to 73774

To vote through Facebook: Pepsi Refresh Voting App

The Right Words

(If I were to add a slice to this graphic, I would add "Hearing Christians say the right thing and do nothing about it.")

Many of you know that I teach a theology class for Liberty University Online.  The discussion board is an important part of the learning process in the class.  Students must form, articulate and defend opinions about the Word of God and the Church.

In the second half of the course, we ask students to give two things churches can do to better minister to their communities.  Consistently, students say things like "love more," "stop bickering," "get involved in community events," etc.  It occurred to me today that nearly 100% of my students and (statistically speaking) nearly 100% of the Church believes we need to argue less, love more, and connect with lost people more.

When it comes to understanding what we need to do at an abstract level, we have the right idea.  What concerns me is that out ability to practically and effectively apply these principles is currently inversely proportional to how much Nickelback is ruining American radio.

(For my tasteless readers who enjoy the mind-numbing repetition of Nickelback, I would like to affirm that they have one good song.  My concern with them is that they have re-released that song with a different set of cliche  lyrics nearly 10 times now.  They seriously need to write some new material, perhaps under the influence of some classic artists like Hendrix, Floyd or Skynyrd.)

James 1:22-24 warns us against knowing the truth and doing nothing.  One of the things I challenge my students to do is give me two very practical ways churches can redeem relationships within the church and engage the community.

Do you have any?  What can we do to better engage the community?  Are you willing to commit to do something?  Can anyone do something about Nickelback?

Serve Elyria Gardens

Last year, about 25% of our church went into the community on May 15th to Serve Elyria. It was a great day. Through that experience, we were able to build a lot of good relationships in the city and see a lot of good things happen. We were able to be a part of some really great things already happening in the city. One of those things is gardens.

Read this article from yesterdays paper (Elyria Woman's Garden Project Grows by Leaps and Bounds) and think about helping us bless 300 families with gardens!

Here's how you can help:

• $20 to cover the cost of each garden. That's right $20 feeds a family produce for a year! You can donate this Sunday at Open Door.
• 20 trucks and 60 volunteers to deliver the gardens on May 15th. Click here to sign up your truck and/or yourself.
• Volunteer for any of the other Serve Elyria projects. Click here to sign up.

See you May 15th at 9:00 am in Ely Square! This year, lets get 500 people out to Serve Elyria!