Rush, rush, rush. Check off your to-do list. Cram more in. Get more done. Be efficient. What’s next on your list? Isn’t it interesting that our world measures our successfulness by the amount of things we can accomplish? It’s not that accomplishing things is bad, even I, who does not naturally enjoy making lists, enjoy the sense of accomplishment and completion when I scratch off several tasks! But Jesus seems to have lived by a different measurement. His focus was rarely on production or projects. Instead, Jesus focused on people. This morning I read Matthew 9:35-38:
35 Jesus continued going around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. 38 Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.”
Most of the times I’ve read this passage verses 37-38 have caused me to stop and to pray for God to send workers to build His kingdom. It’s right that we should pray like this! But today, verse 36 almost leapt off the page! The workers are needed because people matter. Anytime our focus is on production and projects over people our priorities are not aligned with the priorities of Jesus. Jesus cares about people. And Jesus calls us to love people as He loves them.
Today in our celebration email, let me share with you a few ways we as a church family are loving on people whom Jesus loves. Our weekly financial snapshot can also be seen below.
Sending the Gospel: This past week, we, as a part of the Southern Baptist Convention, sent 61 new missionaries around the world to take the gospel to the nations. The SBC is still the largest missions sending denomination in the world. It’s who we are. It’s why we give. That all may know of the love of Jesus! To read more about last week’s sending celebration go to http://www.bpnews.net/54935/southern-baptists-virtually-celebrate-sending-61-missionaries or watch the missions sending celebration at https://vimeo.com/422853462/82437998af
Together Again! Words fail to express our excitement as we head toward phase 2 of our regathering plan, starting June 24th. We know that our church family truly loves to spend time together and we have heard from so many of you just how much we look forward to this as well. Still, we know that we live in unprecedented times and that others may have concerns about what regathering will look like. We want to reemphasize that while Life Groups, children’s, and student ministries will be back that some aspects of being together will continue to look different. Because people are our priority our desire is to make sure each space is cleaned to the highest standards and that we are still doing our best to maintain CDC guidelines for social distancing. For the most up-to-date information you can continue to go to HHBC.net/coronavirus.
Fresh Spaces: One of the ways we are preparing for the return of our children’s ministry and Life Groups has been by freshly painting all our children’s spaces, many Life Group rooms, and several of the main corridors leading to and through older sections of our building. We are thankful for all those who have worked so hard to make this happen! Many of the final touches are happening this week!
In Case of Emergency: We have teams that work exceptionally hard to make sure our church family is safe including a newly added medical response team. If you ever experience or see any emergency on our campus you can call our HHBC Emergency Response line at 434-515-1053 so we can direct the right people to the right place as quickly as possible. While we hope we never have to use these teams, we know having these teams in place for when a crisis happens is crucial to taking care of our church family with the love of Jesus.
Something New: Starting this week our church has begun an a partnership with an amazing organization called the Blue Ridge Autism Achievement Center (BRAAC). This organization helps students and families with special needs learn and grow through specialized education programs. We are excited to partner with this group and to open our doors to better minister to families of special needs in our community.
HHBC Weekly Financials:
Weekly Offering: $32,686.39
Weekly Budget: $33,228.00
As of June 14th, we have received 104% of our year-to-date budget.
Please continue to remember that giving in worship will continue to look different throughout phase 2 of our regathering plan. We will not pass the plates for your safety, but will have offering baskets where you can give as you exit the worship center following whichever service you attend. For many, we know that you have started to give online and this continues to be an excellent choice to make giving easier/safer for you and to make sure that the ministry and mission of HHBC continues to impact more lives the weeks to come. If you would like to give to Hyland Heights online, simply go to hhbc.net/give.
Jesus loved people and calls us to do the same.
Here are three great quotes to encourage you to share and show the love of Jesus this week!
In the New Testament, love is more of a verb than a noun. It has more to do with acting than with feeling. The call to love is not so much a call to a certain state of feeling as it is to a quality of action. – RC Sproul
What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like. – Augustine
Do not waste time bothering whether you love your neighbor; act as if you did. – C.S. Lewis