Shalom Saturday
Few rallying points exist that can bring together a community without people drawing up lines that categorize and separate people. I like to find those few and far between rallying points because I can see so much of Jesus and his Kingdom when we do come together.
Think about the last time a whale was spotted in your corner of Puget Sound and everyone came out. The top vista of a trail in the Olympic National Park. The senior’s parade in downtown Port Orchard. People aren’t mad at these moments; they don’t have a bone to pick. They’re together, celebrating and participating together in moments of beauty and community.
If you can access in your memory one of those kinds of moments and how that made you feel, I suspect you’re accessing a preview of God’s ultimate shalom, his peace. God’s peace isn’t just the absence of conflict; it’s well-being, wholeness, the restoration of all things.
We’ve launched a series on Sunday mornings called “Time to Party” about the seven festivals that God appointed as rallying moments where we could remember and experience that we have access to his very presence, the only place where true shalom is found.
Let’s be honest – as much as I’d love it to be– Sunday morning worship gatherings are not a rallying point where all our neighbors feel permission and access to God’s presence. So we’re not making Sunday our exclusive rallying point as a community of Kitsap House.
We’re bringing shalom to our neighbors by restoring things that are not whole, full of well-being, and at peace.
Saturday, April 29th, we are deeming Shalom Saturday – a day for the restoration of peace and well-being in our neighborhoods. I hope that collectively we have at least 12 mini-projects of restoration happening all over from Bremerton and Belfair through Port Orchard and South to Olalla and Gig Harbor. We live in all those places. And everywhere there is a need for shalom and people sent to bring shalom – you! Us!
What isn’t looking right in your neighborhood? Who could you rally with you to do something about it to extend shalom?
Our bus stop – well, you wouldn’t know it’s a bus stop. Apparently plenty of drivers think it’s a handy place to dump trash. We’re going to rally the bus stop parents to bring weed eaters, trash picker-uppers and some wildflower seed and spend what will probably only take a half an hour to clean up our bus stop. I might even make a banner that says, “Our Bus Stop. Thanks for keeping it clean for our kids.”
The ministry house here at 703 Kitsap Street used to be the block’s biggest eyesore. If you want to jump in on our collective neighborhood, pop down here between 10-12 and help us do some spring cleaning inside and out for the sake of all the neighbors we share this block and home with – the city employees who walk by and share the alley – the residents of Kitsap House and the ministries we host including YoungLife and YoungLives. We have a part to play collectively downtown as a witness to God’s shalom.
So whether you rally your own neighbors or jump in with the residents at 703, we hope you’ll help us make #shalomsaturday a thing – a point where we can rally throughout our neighborhoods.
Pastor Megan
