May 22, 2016

Salt and Light Sunday

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that way they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. - Matthew 5:13-16

We are called to be the Salt and the Light! The salt speaks of our character, and the light speaks of our testimonies of followers of Christ, revealing and illuminating the truth. 

The world doesn't understand! The world looks at Christians and thinks, "They don't count!" God takes us, ordinary people, and uses us to share His message to people who need Him! When we share our faith, we spread His light! 

Jesus describes what we are in this passage. The light of the World, not the light of the Church. We have to get out from beyond the Church walls and shine the light to where it's dark. We were saved to shine! We are to shine in such a way that the world will see our good works and glorify God! 


Our Church has a special way of sharing and showing our faith to our neighborhood. Today our Church held our annual Salt and Light Sunday. On one Sunday morning every year we go out into the neighborhood and the City, and we serve others. Before we go out to serve, we start our morning with worship and a pep rally. 




My husband and I love to be on the Neighborhood Team. We have about 5 teams of 3 to 4 people who walk different areas of the neighborhood within a 5 mile radius of the Church. We knock on doors, we offer to mow, pull weeds, clean, or serve our neighbors in any ways that they may need. We also ask if there is anything the person needs or wants us to pray about with them, and we take prayer requests back to the Church so that our Pastor and staff members can follow up with these people. We also hand out potted flowers to some of the houses. By knocking on neighborhood doors, we hope to let our lights shine, to share our faith, and to show the love of Jesus! 

There are several other teams that serve as well. We have teams for just about everything! We have a Prayer Team that walks the 5 mile radius and prays over the neighborhoods that we serve. 


We have a team that goes to the neighborhood Elementary School and cleans and paints the playground. 


 We have a team that takes the children's choir to our neighborhood retirement/nursing home to brighten the Senior Citizens day.


We have children who write get well cards to neighborhood people who are not able to get out and about. 



We even have little ones who work faithfully by cleaning the Edu-Care and Sunday School classes. 



There are teams who go buy and deliver groceries to under privileged people in the neighborhood.


There are so many other teams as well. We have people who go to the local jail to worship and speak to the inmates. We have teams that go to the Safe Harbor House (A house our Church has ownership in that harbors women from abuse and prostitution). We have teams for the local Pregnancy Resource Center, several different Parks and Recreation Centers around the City, Golf Courses, the local Drug and Alcohol Counseling Center, the Marriage Resource Center, and teams who stay at the Church to prepare lunch, watch the children who are too young to go out and serve, and we even have a Logistical Support Team. 

When we come back from serving the neighborhood, we have lunch and fellowship. 



This Salt and Light Sunday is our way of sharing our faith with those who may otherwise not get the chance to see love in action! We want our neighbors to know who we are, what we do, that we serve faithfully, and that we love and care about them and expect nothing in return. 

This is how we show our faith! We cannot do it alone. We shine the brightest when we shine together. We want to shine our lights brightly for the Lord! 


Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest 
if we do not give up. 
Galatians 6:9


The prompt this week is FAITH! 

And linking up with Suzie Eller for #livefreeThursday



14 comments:

  1. What wonderful examples to serve others! We're learning about "The Successful Church" and this was one area my pastor highlighted: once he teaches and equips us, the church body, we are to go out and be the Light and share the Gospel. Yours are beautiful, practical ways. Terrific post, thank you for sharing with us!

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    1. Thank you Carrie! Yes, we have been doing this for 4 years now, and it is a true joy to visit the neighborhood, and pray with so many hurting people. On our first year, we had one of the neighborhood ladies we prayed with come full circle after a year. She showed up at our Church almost exactly one year after we had prayed with her on her front porch. I recognized her, and asked her if we prayed with her, she said yes, and she couldn't believe I remembered her. She still attends at times, not constantly, but off and on. I continue to pray for her!

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  2. Rachelle, what a worthy walk and cause. I am glad your church lives out its purpose. You definitely are salt and light. Blessings Diana

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    1. Thank you for your kind words my sweet friend! You are such an inspiration to me! <3

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  3. Thank you for sharing the way that your church shines the light of God's love out into the community. I am visiting from Tuesday at 10. I hope you have a lovely day!

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    1. Thank you for reading and commenting. Hope your day is blessed! :)

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  4. This is amazing. What a blessing you all are to those people. What a wonderful church you go to!! You truly are an inspiration to me. God bless you my friend.

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    1. Thank you my beautiful friend! You are such an inspiration to me as well! Yes, I have to say that I am blessed to be part of our Church. I don't know where I would be without these people!

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  5. Love this idea Rachelle! I live in such a small community that it would be wonderful if our church could do something like that too! There are so many needs if we just look for them! Thanks for the inspiration! Cindy

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    1. Thank you Cindy! Yes, this would be great for a small community. Our Church is in a larger community, but it would be great for more Church's to get involved. We've been doing it for 4 years now, and it just keeps getting better! ☺

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  6. That is awesome . I am looking for groups like that. I love staying in his word all the time. Not many churches I knew growing up was that active it was more about the church

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    1. Thank you Christy! Maybe you could talk to your pastor about heading something up for your Church. You would be amazing at something like this!

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  7. hi Rachelle! As it turns out I am your #livefree neighbor this week. I reread your post and I just love this idea more and more! It's one thing to write or read about being the salt and the light. It's a completely different thing to BE the salt and the light Great job!

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    1. Thank you again Cindy! When I seen Suzie's prompt I knew I needed to share this again. I love our Salt and Light Sunday, and I would love to see more churches get involved. Hope you have a great week.

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