JOY Prom 2012

First of all a HUGE thanks for those who served so well at Joy Prom. I am grateful to you for giving of yourselves so well to make this night so huge in the lives of so many. Four reflections on JOY Prom:

- Joy Prom is an EVENT that we hope leads to 100's of RELATIONSHIPS. I hope many of you received a glimpse of what serving people with disabilities looks like. I hope you walked away with names to pray for throughout the year. I also hope you will take action so that this doesn't just become an EVENT each year, but something that facilitates year-long relationships. If you would like to take the next step and serve some of these same people please consider helping with Cabarrus County Special Olympics by contacting Emily Riley emily.riley@cabarrus.k12.nc.us

- There are just something TOO BIG for small groups of people to handle on their own. I love the fact the real life and real change is taking place in caring, mobile, small groups of Jesus followers. I love the Spirit's work in these groups responding to needs and serving people. But no small group could have pulled off what happened on Saturday night. However, a bunch of small groups came together with many other from our church and community and made it happen TOGETHER! There are VITAL roles that the church as a whole plays in the Kingdom of God. It points attention to need, it rallies people to the cause and it financially supports a lot of what happens. But there are limits too. Love needs to be expressed personally as well as corporately. The BIG church can love people with disabilities by organizing and rallying people to the cause, but that event will fall flat apart from individual people loving other individual people personally.

- Paying for this whole thing was a little chaotic when we started seeing the numbers of people who were coming continuing to rise. There was no way we were going to say "no" to anyone. We made the call to just trust God and ask the church as a whole to make up the difference the next day. I was blown away by your response to this need. You gave generously and met the need with room to spare.

- I can only imagine what it will be like when we take the same passion an intensity that we serve people with disabilities with and extend that to our 9 other LOVE Revolution Movements. You see we have created a MOVEMENT OF PEOPLE that are extending LOVE to people with disabilities. It was not just UCity Fellowship serving. Our church was the central force but tons more people showed up to serve and help as well. Why? Because true love is contagious and we created a place for that exchange of love to happen. All of the other Love Revolution Movements are off and running, BUT what would it be like if we all got behind them and invited our whole community to join us? We have some BIG events coming up Harrisburg 5k (April 21) and Movies In the Park (May 11). We have servant needs... financial needs and most of all a world that NEEDS a Love Revolution. Keep it up church.... God is using it for His fame.