Cleaning Up the Streets

Today volunteers from all North Way campuses... Wexford, Sewickley Valley, Oakland, and East End, showed up in Homewood and East Liberty to pick up trash in the streets. It was great to have everyone together working toward the shalom of the inner city of Pittsburgh. A healthy city center is important to the entire region, so it was wonderful to see suburban Christians serving alongside urban Christians. We had volunteers from Rapha Ministries in Homewood serving alongside the volunteers from North Way. At North Way East End, we gather to worship on Sunday morning so that we can go out into the world on the the other days of the week in order to live like Jesus and love our neighbors in our neighborhoods, at our jobs, and in the streets. As I picked up trash today, I had the opportunity to build relationships with other Christians and with random people living in the Homewood and East Liberty communities. Events like the clean up remind me that the church isn't a social club. The church is the means God has chosen to be the most transformative agent for good in society. We don't have nice little Christians at North Way. We have Christians who allow God to work through us to accomplish his mission to redeem every single part of this world. Together we are making a dent in the universe every time we demonstrate the love of Christ in our city.