If you’d like to hear a portion of Elder Rick Ufford-Chase’s message to a group of students this afternoon listen here and listen to some of the worship here. I really enjoyed what he had to say to the youth regarding mission. After hearing him at our presbytery meeting yesterday and listening to him speak to a bunch of youth and young adults this afternoon I’m convinced that he is an advocate for the church becoming missional in the way it does mission not only throughout the world but locally. What I appreciated most was his challenge to the youth to becoming more mission minded not just on an annual mission trip to Mexico but mission minded within their communities.

Yesterday I was jazzed about a new ministry our church kicked-off here in our neighborhood. Several months ago I was talking to a friend about what it would mean to host a monthly feeding program at our church. I had shared that my home church several years ago had begun a weekly feeding program that had pushed the church to a greater understanding of what it meant to be "sent" by Christ into the world and into the world next door.

Several meetings later, a presentation at a session retreat my friend made regarding the vision of a feeding program for low income families and the homeless, and recruitment of some much needed volunteers who were willing to carry out the vision of ministering to those who are hungry, we prayerfully opened up our doors to the neighborhood. I heard this morning that two persons showed up. They expected up to two hundred. When I chatted with those who coordinated the efforts to begin this ministry, they weren’t the least disappointed. As a matter of fact they were encouraged and were reminded by one of the larger feeding programs, a Catholic church in our city that on their first night over twenty years ago, they had three folks, they now average close to four hundred persons a week. It’s exciting to see the church becoming excited about being a church "sent" by Christ, ready to proclaim Christ’s love, not only within the world, but the world next door.

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