Can't Sleep

Once again, Cary is out of town so I'm thinking out loud on a blog. Too many thoughts (Eventhough I DID get my hair highlighted today, I am still getting thoughts). I've been doing some research on Midland's ministries to the poor- very interesting. For instance, First Pres. is really plugged into helping the community. They've got lots of things going. There are 2 soup kitchens I found - maybe more that I don't know about. There's Casa de Amigos, Salvation Army, and Fair Havens. And it looks like most churches have some sort of food pantry or individual ministries to help the poor or needy in their congregations. All good stuff.

Anyway, back to the thought. What if there was a place where meals could be assembled to be given out to the poor - an unconventional soup kitchen. Holly mentioned a franchise that did this and it became a little community in and of itself. Different churches could take different weeks/months to come together in a building (south side, east side, southeast side, southwest side? - feedback, please) , assemble the meals, and when the people came to pick it up, they would be invited to a Sunday worship service at the building and afterwards be served a free Sunday lunch. Different churches could be responsible different weeks for the service and for the luncheon.

If I have any grasp on what a missional church would look like (In this family I probably don't) maybe this would be close. ? I don't know if it would have any denominational or traditional look to it. Just a lot of worship, prayer & fellowship. I guess you might consider this a type of a church plant?

When I start having really big thoughts (scary), I think the building could be built by an apartment complex that we could rent out some units to people. And then maybe build a medical clinic by it, a law firm, a job placement center - I start thinking Central Dallas Ministries.

Oil price is crazy these days, and I'm starting to have very socialistic thoughts about the redistribution of Midland's wealth. This is not a popular thought in a capitalist/Republican town like Midland. I also believe there are a lot of good-hearted, love-the-Lord people that would really desire to do something like this - or to have a small piece of something bigger than themselves. They just don't know where they fit in or what to do. Yes, some of them might be "guilt-giving" just to appease their conscience - I do a lot of that, too. But God can use a guilt offering for His glory - I believe He uses all of my short-comings and failures for His good (keeps Him real busy, too).

Anyway, just thougths I needed to process & get out. I'll probably wake up tomorrow (it already is) and wonder if this idea was just a dream. Maybe it is, and maybe God's giving this dream to other people, too. That might be a dream come true.