By Rev. Andy Nelms
I love our TGIF events! These things have become something of an legend around Acts 2. TGIF are those epic Friday night events, before or after worship, that have included everything from bounce houses, cook outs, sno-cones, food trucks, and even fireworks! It sounds kind of strange, but one of the reasons I love our TGIF events is because it’s not a “churchy thing.”
I’ve grown up in church all of my life. I spent most of my young life in the small town of Coweta, Oklahoma where I attended Coweta First United Methodist Church. This was your typical small, country church and it was fully of “churchy things.” What I mean is, it was full of those things most people associate with church—Wednesday Bible Study, Sunday School, Youth Group which consisted of me and three other kids. These “churchy things” aren’t bad things, but since it was all we did it seemed to miss the whole point. The thing about all of these “churchy things” is it never reached out to anyone other than “churchy people.” As Christians and as members of Acts 2, we are called to reach out to “non-churchy people.”
Maybe you’ve heard it, but just to remind you, Acts 2’s goal is “to help non-religious and non-active Christians become radical Christ followers.” Did you hear it? “Non-religious”! That’s our dream! It’s not “to help churchy and other churchy people be more churchy.” No! Acts 2 reaches out to the “non-churchy people.” That’s why we exist and why we host TGIF events. We do these events because it’s “non-churchy” and we want to be the “non-churchy church” for the “non-churchy people.” So…
We hope you will invite your friends, family and neighbors to our next TGIF event! Friday, May 27th (the Friday of Memorial Day) following our 6:30 pm worship we will have popsicles and FIREWORKS! This will be a great time for us to come together, worship, and fellowship, and be the “non-churchy church” for “non-churchy people.”
Pastor Andy
