Rally Together

When I was a kid, I remember that Labor Day weekend marked the start of something new. A new school year, new teachers, possibly new subjects, hopefully some new friends while also holding on to the old ones. In preparation, there was school shopping for supplies like pencils, paper, and folders, but also for new clothes. The first day of school every year was filled with excitement, a little fear, and a lot of hope. It was going to be new. Of course, much of it wasn’t really new. I was going back to the same school, with many of the same classmates, following the same routine I had followed the year before. But September still felt like a fresh start.

As an adult going to church, I experienced the same thing. We used to call it “Rally Day,” as the Sunday after Labor Day would be a fresh start to a new season. Ministries that took a summer hiatus began again and, in theory, it prompted the rallying of people who had been away during the summer months to come back and reengage.

But as I’ve been thinking about the old phrase “Rally Day,” it makes me wonder if rallying isn’t just a call to come back, but also God rallying us to go out. For so long, the new season of church has been focused on bringing people back into the building: come back to worship, come back to ministries and missions, and I certainly hope we do! Gathering together is very important. We need one another. We need to worship together, study together, pray together, laugh together, serve together, and grow together.

But Jesus called us to more than gather, he called us to go, to be witnesses, make disciples, reveal grace, and share God’s love. That calling belongs to all who follow Christ. We gather, grow, and go, carrying what we have received beyond the walls of our churches and into the communities around us. In the church I serve, Christ First United Methodist, we’ve been asking God what that might look like for us. So, over the summer, we began Covering the Community, opening our chapel on Monday mornings for anyone who wants a quiet place to pray or someone to pray with them.

Now, as we enter fall, one way we are seeking to live out that calling is by carrying our prayers beyond the walls of our church. We will head out into our neighborhood for a Prayer Walk. We aren’t going out to knock on doors or try to convince anyone of anything. We’re simply going to walk through the community God has placed around us, with open eyes, open hearts, and a willingness to pray. We will pass by homes without knowing the stories of the people inside. Someone may be grieving, or lonely, or facing a health concern, or wondering how the bills will be paid. There may be families in conflict, people carrying unspoken burdens, and some may just need to know there is hope. We may never know their needs. But God does. And we believe that prayer matters. We believe God moves through circumstances, through people, and within us. We know that God is good and powerful, full of love and grace. We will go, trusting that God is already at work.

When we pray for our neighbors, we begin to see differently, as strangers become neighbors. The communities around our churches become more than just the places where our churches are located, they become neighbors, people whom God loves and has called us to love. Our Prayer Walk is one step Christ First is taking in this fresh, new season. Covering the Community will continue to grow as we commit to praying regularly for the people who live around us. But this calling extends far beyond one church or one neighborhood. What might happen if churches everywhere began to see the people in the communities around them as more than those we hope to invite in, but as neighbors to pray for, care for, serve, and love?

As we rally together and then rally to go out, may God move through all of us, and through churches throughout our community, so that together we might become sources of hope, healing, and wholeness in the places God has planted us. A fresh, new season is beginning. May we be ready not only to gather, but also to go.