Food Trucks, Parades, and Shepherds

Tonight starts off a glorious weekend in Collierville. Part of the cultural landscape of our fair town is the Collierville Christmas Parade. St. Patrick bought the property we are on now in 2007. I remember years ago getting a call from the Police Department asking if they minded if people parked on our property. I thought to myself, “Wow, I hadn’t thought of that.” I didn’t have to think, I said, “Sure, what better place to watch the parade that on the corner of White and Byhalia. So, for years we have invited the town to “park with us.”Last year after we built our building, we thought to ourselves, “What better way to bless the city and to more deeply weave our way into the cultural rhythms and fabric of the town than to make it even better for people to park with us! So we invited food trucks to feed hungry people, made coffee and gave it away, and opened our building so there were bathrooms and a warm stop to thaw out your kids.” And what a party it was! So big, in fact, we are inviting everyone back again this year, we have added more food trucks, and we are giving out Advent Calendars to the cars that parks on our property!It will be messy, we will most likely tear up some grass, and we might even have to smooth out and replant some grass by the parking lot, but who gets the opportunity to bless that many people and have hundreds of cars park on your property! I mean, I am pretty clever when it comes to scheming, but this opportunity was just laid in our lap and is such a glorious way to break down barriers and crush stereotypes people have of the church as elites, protective, guarded, and people who only look after their own. So, when I say tonight starts a glorious weekend of ministry, I am not overstating the case. Invite your neighbors to come and park with us and also offer to buy their supper at one of the food trucks. While you're at it, you can take them in our church, show them where the bathrooms are, and invite them to worship with us Sunday.Speaking of Sunday, are are talking about misfits, and this week it is the shepherds. We tend to think of shepherds as nice, pastoral people. Our kids fight to be shepherds in the annual Christmas Program. Not so in Jesus day. Shepherds were the ultimate outsiders and yet they are the ones that God chose to announce the birth of the Messiah to the world. Isn’t that just like God? Hope to see you tonight as we serve the city and host a huge party, and then Sunday while we see the reason we are quick to share the resources we have with the folk of Collierville,Blessings,Jim