The Good News in Cleveland

Each summer we plant a garden in our backyard. It is one of my favorite parts of the whole year. Starting seedlings, prepping the ground, planting, weeding, fertilizing, watering, watching the growth, and harvesting the fruit of my labor. Caring for creation in this small way helps realign my focus to see how God cares for me. He provides my every need. We get to worship as we are good stewards of that which He has given us, namely His creation. In being good stewards, we, imperfectly, reflect Him.  As God ministers to me through the garden, He also provides opportunities for ministering through it. Through the garden, we get to teach about God as Creator and Sustainer of everyone and everything [1]  Through the garden we get to teach about the fall – the temporary undoing of what God made and declared good. [2]     Most significantly, through the garden, we get to share the gospel. The good news that our Creator and Sustainer sees the world’s brokenness, sees our brokenness and s

Tonight, we held our second Front Porch Bible Study which is, as the name implies, a Bible study on our front porch. 10 neighborhood teens, 3 of whom have never been to CityView, and a number of Shoreway leaders attended. We discussed what it means to be “living dead” - physically alive people who are spiritually dead apart from Christ’s work in and through the gospel. Following the study, a time of fellowship naturally occurred and included snow cones, PB&J, conversations, card games, and even more teens (thank God for a large parking lot to allow for social distancing).  From my limited and earthly perspective, this evening was a success. It would be easy to walk away and think “We really are doing something right. 10 teens willingly attended a Bible study. We got this!” But this viewpoint wrongly inflates our role and limits the ability to see the fullness of God’s hand at work.  This evening was what it was because God called His church to be generous, they (many of you re