Reflections on God’s Work
- Part 1
God is at work. In 2023, the Beacon feature articles will seek to capture a snapshot of the ways God is working in churches across our conference. We pray that these articles encourage your faith and spur you on to join God in the work he is doing in your local congregation.
~Kelsey Jurkovich, Publication & Literature Committee
“Though I am free and belong to no man, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings” (1 Cor 9:19-23 NIV).
Paul’s life was about winning as many people to Jesus as possible. He tells us that he tried to relate to people where they were, to be able to take them to where God wanted them to be. We try to do the same thing at Abundant Life. Our goal is to make an impact on our community and give as many people as possible a chance to come to know Jesus. One way we do that is through our annual Spring Carnivals and Fall Festivals.
Jesus has called us to scatter seed.
We open up our campus to the community every spring and fall and invite them to come and have a fun family time with games, activities, and plenty of free food. On October 30th, between 1,500 and 1,700 people came to our campus—where the kids played in bounce houses, rode a mechanical bull, climbed a rock wall, made crafts items, and walked through the Trunk-or-Treat area to fill up on candy. Three food trucks, as well as food made by church volunteers, fed the people that attended. Christian music played in the background and announcements were made throughout the time, welcoming people to the event as well as to our church services. We had a prayer area set up where numerous people came for prayer, received a copy of the Jesus film, and had a chance to hear the gospel message. One lucky attendee went home with a free TV! We do the drawing as a way to get their contact information so we can thank them for coming and invite them to come back. We have a number of families at Abundant Life whose first interaction with us was at one of our events.
In 2021, our Fall Festival landed on Halloween and we were overwhelmed by the response as over 2,000 people attended. We were much better prepared this year and had an awesome time with the people of our community. We realize that most of the people who came will never attend a service at Abundant Life, and that’s ok. Jesus has called us to scatter seed. In his parable about the sower only 25% of the seed scattered produced a harvest. Does that mean the seed that didn’t produce a harvest was wasted? No! That seed might produce a harvest next year, in five years, or in twenty years. Our job is to scatter the seed and trust God to bring the harvest. Recently, I had the privilege to share the gospel and see a young man come to Christ. Our conversation wasn’t his first interaction with the gospel. Seed had been planted in his life many times; it had been watered at other times. I just happened to be there when it produced fruit. But it wouldn’t have produced fruit without the previous interactions. Our community parties are places to scatter seed and then see what awesome things God will do.
Abundant Life Church and Ministries was started in 1999 by Vernon Zook and a core group that is still part of the church. They moved to the current location in 2007 and are in the process of adding a new worship center and multipurpose lobby.
2 Responses
Awesome! Praise God! Loved this update! Thank you for sharing ideas for others to try.
I love hearing reports like this. Keep up the good work!