Every Sunday followers of Christ drive to their local church to attend a service. The average worship service usually consists of music, singing, praying,and listening to someone preach. This pattern displays itself in churches across the globe with little variation. Is this because it is the only way to worship God?
Yesterday, one Santa Clarita church decided the answer to this question is a decided "no". Instead of following tradition, Real Life Church encouraged attendees to serve during the service. They called it "Labor of Love". They organized multiple groups to serve throughout the community. Prior to the event, pallets loaded with food items arrived at the church. Designated leaders within Real Life Church chose areas in which to serve and created signs to assist the people who arrived on Sunday in knowing where they could make a difference.
Local areas benefiting from the day of service included parks, senior centers and homes, schools, trail cleaning, street litter pick up, the Red Cross blood bank and a place called the Gentle Barn. People came in jeans and t-shirts with a mission in mind. They worshiped God by serving Him and the people He loves.
This love extends to the Santa Clarita community and beyond. 320 attendees during each service lined up at tables outside the church to put together 100,000 meals for an organization called Children of the Nations. The meals are slotted to be distributed in Haiti. The meal builders chanted "Lentils, spice, chicken, rice!" as they pieced together the food packs. Shouts of joy could be heard whenever a group completed their assigned amount of 300 bags per table. Clearly the idea of a cheerful giving is not lost on this group.
In the end they touched lives across Santa Clarita in 20 service projects and packed 105,192 meals for Haiti and 54 pints of blood for the American Red Cross.
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