The Block Rocked

Thanks, from the bottom of my heart, church family! You rocked the block.

Sunday evening was an over-the-top cap-off for what had already been a fantastic FBC week marked by God’s extravagant grace. Many of our children and students were coming off spiritually momentous experiences at their summer camps, and the “Rock the Block” outreach event at Coleman Park was the icing on the cake for all of us.

New friends were made. Old acquaintances were rekindled. Some teachers in our church met former students who they hadn’t seen in years. Sweet.

About 450 people came onto the park grounds and were a part of what we’ll surely remember as a successful (to God be the glory!) attempt to move FBC Paducah beyond the walls of our building. From the basketball court to the spray park to the line dancing to the Frisbees to the softball to the grilled hot dogs to the bands … it was a great night. Thanks to all our students and friends for providing such terrific and inspiring music!

We did not preach the gospel at our first event. That will come in time. Right now we’re prayerfully advancing in our local mission field by building relationships and expressing Christian kindness to our Paducah neighbors and friends (Proverbs 3:3; Luke 6:35; Colossians 3:12).

Believers in the early centuries of the church earned the reputation of extreme kindness to their contemporaries. The Roman emperor Julian, who reigned for a brief period in the mid-fourth century A.D. and who despised Christianity, rather unwittingly paid a glowing compliment to early Christians when he wrote: “As children are coaxed with cake, so have these Christians enticed the poor to join them by kindness. Strangers they have secured by hospitality. By affecting brotherly love, great moral purity, and honoring their dead, they have won the multitude.”

Go ahead and mark your calendars for August 24 and September 21. Lord willing, we’ll “Rock the Block” a couple more times before 2014 draws to a close. Who knows? Maybe in 2015 we’ll rock some other blocks in some other parts of this wonderful community that Christ has given us to love and serve in His name.