Season of Service

Luis Palau brings Season of Service to Southern California
Churches urged to begin planning projects to reach the community

by Lori Arnold
Christian Examiner Newspaper group

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — San Diego County churches, assisted by area businesses, will usher in the largest coordinated volunteer effort in city history April 24 in conjunction with the annual Sleepless in San Diego homeless campaign.

Sleepless in San Diego, an annual outdoor sleepover project of the San Diego Rescue Mission, will get some much-needed assistance from the Season of Service.

“It’s a good way to really raise awareness,” said Chris McFarland, director of the Luis Palau Season of Service project and its subsequent two-day CityFest festival, a communitywide celebration marking the August conclusion of the official volunteer season.

“We use the festival to build up and increase their (volunteers) focus on evangelism,” he said.

Last month, evangelist Luis Palau and his festival team announced it was accepting an invitation from San Diego pastors to bring its two-pronged service-and-evangelism effort to the region.

Already, the Season of Service campaign has received partnership pledges from more than 175 churches. It hopes to increase that amount dramatically before the official April kickoff. In Portland, Ore., where the volunteer project was inaugurated two years ago, more than 600 churches signed on.

“We want to see more churches partner together,” McFarland said.

To be a partner church, congregations are asked to commit to at least one of five areas: praying, serving, equipping, investing or celebrating.

McFarland said many churches in the community already participate in service projects, especially since the Faith in Action days were launched several years ago. Through the national FIA campaign, churches are encouraged to close their doors for one Sunday while they head out into the community to do various service projects.

This year, Point Loma’s Rock Church launched it own churchwide volunteer outreach, called “Do Something,” pledging 600,000 community service hours. To date, the church is 77 percent completed with that goal. Within that project, the church also pledged 100,000 “Mayor’s Hours” for work to benefit the city of San Diego, including Balboa Park. Volunteers at the church have already exceeded that projection, logging 104 percent of the goal hours.

Churches that already have their own existing service projects are encouraged to continue with that work, but to include them under the SOS umbrella.

“That (collaboration) can be used to show what the body of Christ can do, not to brag, but to show we care, to show, ‘hey, the body of Christ is part of the solution for the city in the issues that we all face,’” the director said.

“When you can compile all of that data, all of a sudden you see the scope of the impact.”

A clearinghouse
The Season of Service staff will serve as a clearinghouse to help plug churches into areas of need. Regardless of size, churches can either develop their own service plan or contact SOS to find identified areas of need.

McFarland said his team is currently assessing community needs that will be addressed by the thousands of volunteers who will participate in the plan. The teams will concentrate on five focal points: the homeless, military, schools, hunger and existing projects.

While a major thrust for the manpower is on the church community, local businesses—Christian and secular—are also being tapped, as well as civic officials. McFarland said that by adding the element of business, and encouraging Christians to bring their non-believing friends to work parties, not only will more work get done, but there also are widespread opportunities to share the love of Christ.

“We always get, ‘Who are you and why are you doing this?’” McFarland said. “The idea is just going out to serve because of Jesus’ love for us.”

In Portland, the SOS project was able to bridge some significant divides between the liberal-leaning city and its conservative churches. The SOS project, McFarland said, allowed churches to show another dimension of their faith.

“We can show what we are for,” he said. “We’re for loving our city and serving Christ. We can step away from those divisive issues and love the community. When we do, it sends a powerful message.”

http://www.sandiegocityfest.com/

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