Reachout

Restore Listens in Liberty

Nate Williams, Campus Pastor of our soon to be launched Liberty site, led his team at the Liberty Fall Festival last weekend. They set-up a booth and handed out candy bars and water and asked people to take a simple survey. Nate really believes that before launching our campus in Liberty, we need to listen to people to determine how we can best serve them. Here's the note Nate sent to all of the people who served at the Restore booth.

Hey Everyone,

I wanted to give you an update from all of the time that we put in this weekend at booth at the Liberty Fall Festival.

Nine days ago I challenged everyone at the Liberty info meeting to join us in listening to our community. You responded to that challenge in a profound way. During the 3 day period of the fall festival we had 35 people who served in the booth. You were challenged to engage people in conversation as you handed out water. You did that so well, that we handed out nearly 1200 bottles of water. But people didn't just take the water and leave. You invited them to stay and share their opinions about Liberty. We received a total of 255 surveys from these people about what is going well and what needs to be improved. Out of all the people that did stop and talk, we had 14 people sign up to receive more information about Restore coming to Liberty. We even had someone visit Restore for the first time on sunday as a direct result of our booth at the Fall Festival.

This was our first concerted effort to engage our community in conversation and listen for the needs of Liberty. Because of you, we were incredibly effective. This event exceeded everyones expectations and was a great success. I just wanted to express my gratitude to all of you who joined us in listening to our community. I will keep you posted as we sort through all of the data that was collected. It will undoubtedly help us focus our efforts in Liberty. Thanks for joining us on the adventure of listening and serving our community.

Changing the World One Bag at a Time: Replenish!

What a night! About 100 people from Restore gathered at Metro North Mall and then headed out into communities across the Northland to help gather school supplies for hurting kids as part of our Replenish KC Project.

We went door to door in 14 different communities and asked people to partner with us by donating school supplies. We dropped off approximately 785 bags for people to fill with supplies and left at least 850 door hangers. Every bag drop-off was a conversation we had with someone. Every door hanger is an opportunity for someone to be generous. The vibe we picked up was that people are very willing to be part of helping kids in the community.

I've already received calls and emails from people telling us that they are going to fill their bags.

Thanks to all of the people at Restore who showed up to make it happen. I love being part of this generous community.

We're headed back to the neighborhoods on August 8th to pick-up the bags. Keep praying that people will respond to our request and donate the supplies. Keep praying that God will use this opportunity to work great things in our community.

Nothwood Hills Community Focus Group Parent Night--After

Well we did it.

Approximately 40 people from Restore Community Church helped pull off a very unique evening at Southeast Elementary this past Thursday.

The event turned out better than we expected. Thanks to a team from the City of Kansas City, residents learned some simple conflict resolution skills. The Kansas City Police Department provided some crime statistics for the area, and Janet from Northland Neighborhoods, Inc. provided a great overview the pros and cons of a neighborhood organization. At the end of the night we asked residents to form a neighborhood organization. To our delight most of the parents agreed to meet again to start the process.

People from Restore served in a variety of capacities. They greeted the residents and sat with them during dinner. Another team served dinner and helped bus the tables. Yet another team staffed some programming for the kids so that the parents would have a chance to focus during the parent break-out.

An educational professional told me: "this wouldn't have happened without your team."

And once again I heard from many community organizations how admirable it was to see so many people from Restore serving the community. One woman from the city added, "just like the church should be doing."

I couldn't agree more.

What I love about the opportunity we have to serve this neighborhood is that it's organic. It just sort of happens. Now that Restore is part of the focus team we have a hand to play in this partnership. We could never have planned to be at this point. We simply started serving and the relationships we are developing continue to point us to more opportunities to be the church.

The evidence: At the end of the night I was asked by two different city organizations if Restore would be interested in serving with them in some of their programs.

I am convinced that we were invited to play because we didn't bring an agenda. We simply served with no strings attached. People are seeing the church rather than hearing about it.

 

What are ways that you've served your neighbor?

I'd love to hear how you've served your neighbor(s). What was the relationship like? How did it come about that you were called to serve? What did the serving part look like? Come on, we can all use the inspiration.

OK--I'll go first.

I had the really cool opportunity to help my neighbor by simply listening to him one afternoon when he was feeling really down and distraught. The meeting came at an inconvenient time for me (I had to reshuffle an appointment or two) but he needed someone to talk to. Although the conversation didn't start with spiritual matters, it inevitably went there. We didn't talk about Jesus or review the Roman Road but I did pray for him.I tried to be honest and authentic. He knows I am a Christ-follower. When he wants to talk about Jesus I'll be ready. In the meantime I am simply his friend.

Relationships before Service

So you're ready to serve your neighbor but you have no idea where to begin. Your taking this serving your neighbor-thing to heart and you're ready to get after it. You're ready to help but you have no idea how. (I am talking about your literal neighbors here--the people who live next door.)

I propose you simply say hello. You start with the relationship and not the service.

Get to know your neighbor. Invite them over for a barbecue. Whatever. Just don't lead with the service. Build relationships first.

Jesus didn't call us to serve so we can do good deeds and as though the deed was the point. What he asks of us is much more difficult than that. We need to be intentional about building relationships with our neighbors before we can serve them.

Life is messy. The opportunity to serve others will soon come.