Learn how one couple’s way of life is influencing those in Philadelphia with the tangible love of Christ.
Read MoreAlbert Everett | Jun 29, 2016, 18:37 PM
Learn how one couple’s way of life is influencing those in Philadelphia with the tangible love of Christ.
My wife Audrey and I are lifelong Delaware County residents. We were born into established Christian families. Our parents were “blue-collar theologians,” meaning they didn’t care too much for book knowledge and talk. In an atmosphere where life was more caught than taught, we each learned that the good life was one lived in the service of others. Though not always with the clearest vision, we’ve spent the majority of our 29 years together dedicated to caring for the spiritual and physical needs of family, friends and, many times, strangers.
In 2013 we joined Soma as Missional Community (MC) leaders. Rather than “going to church,” we seek to “live as the church” in an organic and fluid lifestyle. We view church life more as a 24-7 way-of-life vs. a set of programs we attend or serve in weekly. Not for the faint of heart, the MC lifestyle is built around intense, transparent relationships with real, broken people. We’re all about tangible Christian living in the everyday that can be seen and felt and breathed in.
The MC is definitely not just a different way of “going to church.” By design, the MC lifestyle impacts the way we live out every aspect of our lives. We expect that as we are increasingly learning to make all of life — 24/7 — about the worship of God, we’ll see many in the secular community attracted to the gospel through the tangible demonstration of Jesus’ love as it naturally flows from our lives. We’re finding that people are amazingly open to relationship when they recognize we come with no other agenda but to love.
Debbie and Nicole are good examples. Deb says,
I spent my entire life looking for God. I never seemed to get anything from any of the different religions. I felt just as empty when I left church as when I went in. I stopped searching, and the day-to-day I lived became a very unsatisfying existence. My life was full of stress and loneliness.
When Debbie heard about our approach to ministry from a friend, she joined us for a family meal. She is still here. About a year later, she says she’s learned more about God since joining us than she learned her entire life in Sunday church meetings. She says,
Right from the start, I was welcomed with open arms and open hearts. I have a place where there’s good food, good friends and, most importantly, conversation about God that I've never experienced anywhere else. This has definitely changed my life. I pray to God now on a daily basis, and I feel his presence. I feel less stressed. I have friends that care about me, and now I have God in my life.
Nicole met me at night classes at a local secular university. When we first met, Nicole told me she needed to find a way back to God and I was the person to show her. She had been alienated from the church for over 20 years. I introduced Nicole to Audrey, a member of our ministry. It wasn’t long before Audrey invited her to join us and some other friends as we walked through The Story of God, our 21-week series of meals and dialogues based on basic Bible stories. Now, three years later, Nicole says,
The Everetts and the MC have changed my life and my relationship with Jesus. The Story of God helped me actually understand the Bible in a way I never could before. The love the MC has shown my family and me has impacted me in ways that have left me forever changed. I now find myself offering similar love to others. I no longer love others in order to justify myself. It's now about the glorification of Jesus — what he has done for me. My husband and children still claim to be non-believers, but the compassion they see in Albert and the MC helps them open their hearts a little more with every interaction.
What may surprise some of our readers is the number of faithful church people we encounter whose lives are secretly broken. The intimacy and intensity of our relationships reveals the inconsistencies in the best of lives and, thankfully, for many of these broken, isolated people, the gospel of Jesus is finally finding a way into their real lives and bringing healing and renewal.
I end most of my emails with this closing: “In His service and grace.” This is really the heartbeat of our message and our mission. We are here as servants of God called to serve humanity. Yet none of these opportunities or solutions is possible without his grace being poured on us as we pour ourselves out for the sake of others.