Why do we do what we do?
I was mulling over this question as I said goodbye to my kiddos early this Saturday morning as I headed to our recently purchased Wallingford Expression. I also thought about it earlier this week when I praised God for the sacrifice of time, skill, and energy given by a few dozen Hallows members over the last couple months on weekends, work nights, with children in tow, you name it! Want to know what came to mind? The pictures above.
The Pictures Above
The first one is of a recent West Seattle Sunday Gathering–a baptism gathering at that (that trough in the middle of the aisle is not actually for watering your urban farm’s animals). Next Sunday, Lord-willing, we will be hosting our first baptism in the Wallingford Expression! May each of our expressions including our new Wallingford one be a place where every image-bearer of God–from children to our seniors–grow in their faith and find courage to live for Jesus!
The second picture is of a member showing a child (not his own) how to paint while their Missional Community worked on the sanctuary. Look at that little hand resting on his arm. That’s what happens when strangers become family because of shared life in the body of Christ–serving, studying, and socializing together!
The third is of one of our founding church families (The Moore family) praying over the new building, the Wallingford neighborhood, and church in general. They were on vacation to Seattle a few months ago, and they made sure to take time to praise God and pray for this new ministry opportunity. Interestingly, that wasn’t the first time they had prayed here for this.
They and others walked these same Wallingford streets 10 years ago. They asked God to gather worshippers and scatter servants who would share and show the gospel to those we live, study, and work with. And here we are years later seeing that God never forgot our earnest requests for Him to establish His church in the city for His glory and others’ good! And then this happened…
evidence of god at work this week
This week as I worked at the building, I saw some neighbors walk by whom I’ve enjoyed getting to know over the summer. I asked if they wanted to come in to see the building progress. They paused, then said, “Sure!” I walked them around the building and described what it’ll look like in a week (hopefully), and what we do in our worship gatherings. I answered their questions of what our church name means (they aren’t Christians), and I described why we transformed the basement into a place for our tables after worship and to care for children during worship.
Then they said something that brought me to tears afterwards. The wife said this was the first time in all the years they’ve lived next to this church building that she remembered being invited in. Sit on that for a moment.
Now I don’t know all the reasons for this, but I do know the reasons I don’t want this to be anyone else’s experience who lives near any of our church expressions or crosses paths with the actual Hallows Church–you and me. We do good, we sacrifice, we serve, we take risks, we turn buildings into welcoming spaces so that as many as possible might be invited to discover the difference Jesus makes in all of life with us.
Written by Kim Arthur, Hallows Communications Director.