Down in Beckley, West Virginia, a congregation called Greater Mount Zion Pentecostal Church spent a summer Saturday doing something that will never make national headlines but matters more than most of what does. They held their fourth annual Summerfest — a back-to-school giveaway. Backpacks. Notebooks. Pencils. Shoes. Families walking away with what they need to send a child into a new school year with their head up.
Fourth annual. That word gets me. Anybody can throw one event and feel good about it. But four years running means somebody kept showing up. Somebody planned it again when the excitement of the first time had worn off. That is not a burst of enthusiasm; that is love that has learned to stay.
Small things done with great faithfulness
It is easy to think the kingdom of God advances mainly through big moments — the packed revival, the powerful worship night, the sermon that lands. And God does move in those. But read the Gospels slowly and you notice how much of Jesus' ministry was ordinary, physical, close to the ground. He touched people. He fed them. He noticed the child nobody else was counting.
When He described the final judgment, He did not point to the impressive. He pointed to the practical. "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:40). Did for. Not felt for. Not preached about. Did. A backpack handed to a kid who was nervous about not having one — Jesus takes that personally.
There is a beautiful scandal in that verse. The God who flung the stars into place says that when you meet a small human need, you have met Him. The line between the spiritual and the practical, which we are always trying to draw, He erases. Feeding, clothing, welcoming — these are not the warm-up to the real ministry. They are the real ministry.
The Spirit works through open hands
Some of us grew up hearing that the gifts of the Spirit are about the dramatic — a word of knowledge, a healing, a stirring in the room. And they are real; I have watched God move in ways I cannot explain. But I want you to see that the same Spirit who heals also organizes a supply drive. The same Spirit who fills a room with worship also nudges a volunteer to buy two extra pairs of sneakers just in case. Generosity is charismatic. Kindness is a manifestation of the Spirit as surely as any goosebump.
Paul wrote to the Galatians that the fruit of the Spirit is "love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness" (Galatians 5:22). Notice kindness and goodness sitting right there in the list, unglamorous and essential. A church full of the Holy Spirit will not only sound different; it will act different. It will notice the family that is a little behind and quietly close the gap.
What this looks like where we live
I think about our own corner of West Michigan — Ravenna, Muskegon, the towns around us — and the kids getting ready to head back to class in a few weeks. There are parents doing math at the kitchen table, wondering how the supply list and the grocery list are both going to fit in the same paycheck. God sees every one of them. And He tends to answer those prayers through people who are paying attention.
This Friday at 7, our Prayer Night is exactly the place to bring those ordinary, unglamorous needs — the neighbor's child, the family stretched thin, the teacher heading into a hard classroom. Prayer is not the opposite of practical help; it is where practical help gets its marching orders. You pray for a need long enough and the Spirit often shows you that you are part of the answer.
The God who shows up
What that West Virginia church really put on display was not a giveaway. It was the character of Jesus, who came near, who noticed, who provided. If you are the one running low today — on backpacks or on hope — hear this: you have not fallen off God's radar. He knows the shoe size of your worry. He has a habit of meeting people at exactly the point where they thought no one was looking.
And He often does it through a church that simply decided to show up again.
Join us this Sunday at 10:30am — Outpouring Worship Center, Ravenna.