“Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.” Proverbs 11:25 ESV
In California, churches experience a credit on their property taxes. In Merced County, that can be a benefit of several thousand dollars. Is it any wonder that some cities are putting a cap on number of churches in their community? That money, which funds services, can take a toll.
What if, instead, the church alleviates the burden by serving its city? What if each church gave back minimally what their area gives up in taxes? Would that be of benefit? We believe it would. By merely doing what is biblically mandated, we not only fulfill our duty as a Christian but also as a good citizen to our community. Years ago, we began saying “Saved People, Serve People.” We printed it on our shirts and set up a serve team.
There are plenty of ways to get involved. In 2019, a simple call to Chief Brizzee, and a question about what he would like help with, set us to working with Joe Heim at Parks and Recreation. They set us to work on painting the fences at the park and the rail trail during pandemic. While volunteering for events, park clean ups, even other organizations who needed help became such a blessing to us. Pretty soon The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints joined us in painting and clean up and it was fun to be a small part of something big like making our city better.
Many churches in our city are giving generously, putting their hands to work in solid places to serve and making an impact in our community. By simply reaching out with a desire to make our community better much can be accomplished.
What if?
What if we all got involved?
What if we extend our generosity beyond the walls of the church?
We are sure if you reach out to the city and ask how to get involved in volunteering, they would have a to-do list.
Remember when our elders would tell us to leave things better than we found them? They weren’t wrong.
