SERVEFEST is more than a day.

About two months before ServeFest on May 14th 2011 we, at Harford Community Church (HCC) in Harford County, received a call from a person worshipping with Love Fellowship Christian Center (LFCC) asking if they could become involved in ServeFest.  After hearing about the possible levels of involvement she asked if their church could join us on a project our church was developing with Church Creek Elementary School located in Riverside about two miles from HCC.  We were very excited about that, so we planned the project together. 

On the day of ServeFest we met at the school, served together, met the Pastor from LFCC and several of their church members.  We found out that LFCC actually rents the very school we were serving for worship services on Sundays.  Then we were really excited and felt God was letting us serve both the school and the church meeting there. 

We found out at the end of the day serving together that LFCC might not be able to use the school during the summer months because of difficulty getting custodial help when the school is off for the summer.  So we came back to our church body and I announced on Sunday that LFCC had this dilemma and asked for prayer for them and any ideas.  Somebody actually stood up toward the back of our auditorium and said, “Pastor, invite them here!” which was followed by resounding applause.   So we contacted Pastor Terence Thompson from LFCC and asked if they’d like to share our facility for the summer. 

Several of us from our leadership met with several of their folks at a local restaurant and we decided to take the plunge.  We at Harford Community Church shifted our worship earlier by an hour and then offered them the prime hour of 11:30 am for their service.  We also decided to worship together in a combined service to kick things off the first Sunday. 

Two Sundays later we joined them at Festival Park in Aberdeen for their annual “Praise in the Park – Church without Walls” day where they do a worship service, cook food and serve many of the homeless people in Aberdeen on that day.  So we decided not to meet at our facility and to go there and worship with them instead.  We have another joint worship and teaching time planned for the first Sunday in August.  Last week we served with them as they led a VBS week on our campus.  Some of our kids attended and some of our folks joined their teaching teams.  This Monday evening our elders and Pastors are gathering with their Pastor and church leadership for a time of prayer to seek the face of the Lord for our community. 

We have no idea what God might want to do out of all this and we are leaving it up to the Lord to direct our paths.  Oh, did I mention, we are a mostly white and Hispanic congregation, and they are African American!   After our first combined worship service one lady from HCC came up to tell me how excited she was because she and her husband had just adopted an African American four year old girl into their white family.  And an African American mother came up to me and said how right this was, explaining that she is a foster mom to a nine year-old white boy from Baltimore City.  People from both churches are testifying week by week how they just know what we are doing together is straight from the heart of God for reconciliation and unity in His Church.  God is doing some amazing things out of ServeFest, way beyond what any of us could imagine. 

Praising God for divine appointments…

Pastor Allan Gorman

Harford Community Church

allan@harfordcommunity.org