GCC friends and family came to Greenbelt Community Church on Saturday, November 5^th for a delicious spaghetti dinner from 5-6:45 pm, followed by a music extravaganza from 7-:815pm featuring Spiritual Church and Contemporary Favorites with a sprinkle of Classical. A free-will donation was accepted at the door, with all proceeds going to support local charities.

A financial commitment to the church is so much more than paying the electrical bills and providing heat or air conditioning in a building, although that is important. Those basic expenses make other things possible. Let me give you an example from our Spaghetti Dinner last week.

Because we had a building in good repair, with heat and electricity, clean (thanks to one of our salaried employees), we could organize a fund-raiser dinner for our mission giving. We could invite the community to join us and pay whatever they wanted or could afford for an abundant meal of delicious spaghetti, bread, salad, dessert, and something to drink. We had quite a few people from the community come to the meal and stay for the concert. A few comments made it to me that show how this seemingly mundane activity turned into a piece of God’s amazing vision.

An elderly lady and her granddaughter came by. I heard that one of our members shepherded her – carried the plates for them, help them find a seat, answered questions, visited with them. I also heard that her comment about her first visit with us was “I felt so cared for.” Never doubt the power of your church offering that pays the utilities bills and the salary of our custodian! The one made the other possible.

Another visitor said he had recently moved back into the greater Greenbelt area. He had joined us for Luncheon on the Lawn and this last weekend he joined us for our Spaghetti Dinner. When he came into the sanctuary for the concert, he was able to see our worship space and was glad to be there – his first time. It is likely there will be a few other times. Because this church is here, providing fellowship events that are connected to our mission giving, we are able to make it possible for others to join us in caring for those in need.

Another visitor from the community came for the dinner and stayed for the concert where she and her daughters heard, through music, our witness to our faith of God’s “amazing grace, the chains are broken”. She wants to return for the Christmas concert. In the church we tell the good news in many ways.

Another visitor told me how much she appreciated these kinds of opportunities to get together with others in the community and become a stronger community through meeting one another. We are a church whose roots are centered in the life of a community. As it changes, we change but we are part of the whole.