"The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." –Mark 10:45
"When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." –Luke 14:13-14
In a few days, Christians across the world will be celebrating Easter, the day that Jesus of Nazareth resurrected from the dead. They will attend church services, visit family, hold Easter egg hunts with their children (and the children-at-heart), and sit down for a great Easter meal.
Usually, these events take place throughout the day, each at different locations, but in the Potomac Valley Church, we are seeking to do something a little different. We are combining all of these activities into one event in order to serve our community as Jesus served and to invite them into our family. We are throwing a Great Banquet.
Prince William County, the community where the Potomac Valley Church meets, has the interesting designation of being one of the most affluent counties in the country while also having a homeless population that numbers in the hundreds. It is a community of many without means and many with the means to help. Our desire this Easter is to bring these people together, and what greater way to accomplish this than by throwing a huge party in honor of the greatest servant of all!
On April 1, we are opening the doors of the building, and instead of inviting everyone in, we are coming outside. We will be having an outdoor service, and after that, we're grilling 500 pounds of meat with all the fixings. There will be live music, games for the young and the old, and trucks filled with donated clothing, non-perishables, and hygiene products for anyone to take as much as they need.
The best part: it's all free—an opportunity to love as Jesus loved without an end in mind. Whether dropping off donations or serving food to the family sitting next to yours, we've created an event where everyone, those with plenty and those with little, can find some way to serve one another.
Please pray for us as this church of 200 hopes to have hundreds of people present at this event. Can you imagine the scene? The rich and the poor, the religious and the nonreligious, the honorable and the undesirable, sitting and serving and eating and playing together. It is a community as Jesus envisioned it.
Check out our invitational video and share it! We can't wait to see what God will do with this mustard seed of faith!