Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it.”  Romans 12:9 MSG

My family moved here in the summer of 2015, and one of the first church functions we participated in outside Sunday morning services was Chatham Serves. This was a new concept for us, and I remember thinking what a lovely idea it was to have a day of serving the community in place of the usual Sunday activities. Actually, my thoughts were probably more along the lines of, “This church is putting its money where its mouth is!”  

The first few projects we helped with were working to beautify a local school. Our kids were still pretty little back then, but everyone could hold a shovel or rake or paintbrush, so we showed up with (mostly! :) ) good attitudes and did our best to contribute. The finished project has been one of the many outward signs of how much our church loves the community it’s in: new landscaping, freshly mulched flower beds, and a couple of retaining walls painted in the school’s colors. Our kids have been or are students at that school, and when they’re walking around campus they see the plants they helped put in the ground and the walls they helped paint. They can be proud of their work and of their church’s love for the community. 

The mission statement of Chatham Church is so woven throughout the ministries within the church that it doesn’t take long to commit it to memory: “Connecting people to God and each other, and engaging our world for good.” Chatham Serves checks all of those boxes, but “engaging our world for good” is the main idea behind our biannual days of doing good in our community. “Loving from the center of who you are” is a perfect summary of what Chatham Church is all about. The center of our church is genuine Love, and there’s no faking that.

We at Chatham Church love our community in all sorts of ways all year long, but two days a year we really put that love out there. When we say, “We love Chatham,” you can be sure that we mean it! Have you signed up to be a part of it yet? I can wholeheartedly recommend the experience, and there are projects that folks of any age and ability can help with. You can find out more and sign up at www.chathamserves.org.