In this week's installment of my Messages About Purpose and Strategy, I want to quickly answer two more questions about our participation in the upcoming Iris Festival. These aren't the whopper-type questions I dealt with last week (why and how), but they are valuable things to consider.

First, what does the community see when we serve? What I heard after last year was that people recognized the body of Christ in action. We got a lot of comments on the power of unified effort. In fact, we received an award! The community was so impressed with the Dayspring volunteers last year because they saw a picture of what the church is supposed to look like, working together for a common goal. Demonstrating God's love in practical ways builds a bridge to connect people with the Christ we are really serving. Let's do it again this year by allowing our love for Christ and his love for us and the people in our community to flow through us.

Now, what if you are already involved serving in a ministry here at Dayspring. Your participation in the Iris Festival is still valuable. You can sign up and be a part of this church-wide effort to serve our city (remembering that even if you don't live in Keizer, the church is located here so we want to take advantage of the opportunity to bloom right where we are planted). But we don't just want the people who are already involved in ministry to sign up, you can grab a friend from Dayspring who isn't plugged in and bring them along with you to serve. This is a great opportunity to give your friend a taste of how natural it feels to do something that God created us to do: serve others. The Iris Festival is an easy one-time commitment and they can work right along side of you. So, snag a friend to join you at the sign-up table!