One body many members

Our church family always humbles me when we come together to create something awesome… such as our Fall Festival every year.

• More than 1,500 enthusiastic people attended the festival. 
• We raised $1,100 for Missions and for the Children’s Ministry. 
• Our generous participants donated 115 bags of Thanksgiving food.
• We served over 110 lbs. of chili and cooked about 650 hot dogs.

Why do we do all this?  

This is why.  As I looked out over the crowd I realized this was not a St. Andrew exclusive event.  This was a time where the community looks to the church to provide some good ol’ family fun.  And we did just that.

It’s my prayer that some families used this event to see what this thing called “church” is all about.  That these families felt the excitement of being on the church campus and thought, “This place is fun.  I could see myself as a part of this.” 

We don’t do a Fall Festival just to be fun and have an event.  We create this event to open our doors to all of our neighbors.

So, thank you to all who made it a wonderful success:

• The CWP room parents and church Small Groups who made the trunk-or-treat AMAZING!
• Various Small Groups within the church who worked the booths with joy and offered smiles to each family.
• David Keene and his Small Group who made the Chili Dinner something to talk about.
• The Confirmation Class youth who worked diligently during the festival, and most importantly helped get it cleaned up!
• The Children’s Ministry Council and team who helped set up the festival throughout the day on Sunday.
• Our church family who offered prayers leading up to the event proved invaluable for us.  We couldn’t have received that great weather without prayers.

Thank you all.  You showed what a church can do when we come together.  It reminds me of the passage in 1 Corinthians 12:

One Body with Many Members

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; 24 whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25 that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.

***Check out what the Dallas Morning News had to say about our festival.