Why a Car Show?
As you read this, cars, motorcycles, and trucks that have had the utmost of care and attention provided to them are lined up in the church parking lot. It’s overcast, but it looks like the rain is holding off for a bit. People mill about, listening to the Luke Stanton band play, buying a hot dog, checking out some of the very unique vehicles that have rolled onto our lot. As strange as it may seem, we have a car show happening at our church!
If you have been around Chapel Hill long enough you know that we take risks, so a car show may not be all that too surprising to you. But I imagine that some folks might be wondering why on earth we are doing this. Well about five months ago, I asked the same question. At the time, I was sitting down for lunch with Ben, a member of Chapel Hill (and avid car show aficionado), listening to him describe what it would take to run a car show. It sounded doable, but I wasn’t ready to pull the trigger on this unless it made sense. “Ben,” I said, “we can do a car show, but I don’t want it to be just a car show. I want it to ultimately lead people to Jesus.” I’m glad to say that Ben agreed with me wholeheartedly, and now here we are.
So how do we do that? How do we run a car show that leads people to Jesus? And how do we do that in a way that doesn’t seem like a bait and switch? First of all, every dollar of the registration goes toward one of the mission efforts we support, Families for Life (a ministry of World Relief). That means, at the very least, this car show will provide support for pastors in Haiti to strengthen marriages and draw families closer together and closer to Christ. Later this morning, Mark Lamb from World Relief will share with the folks here how exactly Families for Life ministers to people. I hope that’s an opportunity to talk about what the gospel is.
We’ve also invited some of our teens (including some who’ve been on our recent outreach to ASU) to do a Fearless Q outreach. They’re manning a white board filled with Fearless Questions and inviting dialogue from those who are visiting us and church members alike. I’m praying that they have God-ordained, gospel conversations today.
And besides that, the entire show is an invitation to church. I pray that people roll onto our campus who’ve never stepped foot in a church before. I pray that in the faces they see and the people they encounter, they see Jesus. I will explicitly invite folks to church too, of course, but sometimes it’s not the guy up front who has the most pull, but rather the people standing side-by-side. Pray with me that as a church community we do a good job inviting our guests to follow Jesus and worship with us.
With all that, I am excited for today. A thing is not worth doing, especially as a church, unless its aim is Christ. May we aim true today.
Pastor Larry