Recently Literacy Connexus received a grant from The Trull Foundation to update our Fifty Ways Your Church Can Bless Your Community Through Literacy poster. We consolidated and combined, added to and subtracted from the first edition. Most of the items on the first run were borrowed from others, with some modification. In addition to covering the design and printing costs, the Trull Foundation grant enabled us to launch the new product with a presentation at the Literacy Texas Annual Conference in San Marcos in August.
Perhaps you have already seen the new version. We grouped the ways churches can help into three categories by location: on the church campus, in the community, and at the capitol. The idea is to stretch our thinking and improve our serve. Here’s a challenge. Look at the list and identify how many your church is currently doing. Not a competition; just an exercise in awareness of community connection.
Before our first daughter (Leslie) was born, Donna and I participated in a Lamaze class. At one point there was a competition among the dads for speed diapering. What a laugh to see expectant dads racing to diaper large baby dolls. Later it occurred to me that speed was not the most important factor in diapering . . .
Just as speed is not the most crucial aspect of diapering babies, quantity is not the best way to approach the Fifty Ways list. It’s not how many of those on the list describe your church, but how serving through these ways blesses your community.
Oh, and please notice that #50 is blank: Share your idea with us! What is your church doing to bless your community through literacy and education? Recently, at the WMU Fiesta at Green’s Creek Baptist Church, Pam Patterson suggested taking books and magazines to Veterans Hospitals. Great idea! This is the first #50; perhaps you have another. We’ll be sharing these on the website.
Click here for our online Fifty Ways list. Contact us if you would like us to send you some free copies of our Fifty Ways poster.
