“As a congregation, we seek together to live this way of life by engaging in a wide variety of ministries by which we can be a neighbor to those in need. Through Family Promise, we reach out to those who are homeless. Together with Habitat for Humanity, we help to build affordable homes. With the Angel Tree ministry we care for children who have a parent in prison. We support our local YWCA in their care for battered women, and our local food bank by our donations for those who are hungry. And the list of our local mission and outreach efforts goes on. Step into Fellowship Hall this morning after worship, and you will be encouraged to actively be a neighbor to students in our schools who need a warm blanket, to the people of Haiti who are experiencing unprecedented hardships, and to children in third world countries by filling a shoe box that will be given to them at Christmas time.

To be a neighbor to a person in need is done in many ways. Some we do together as a church, while others we undertake in our individual daily lives. Those we do as a church require your involvement through your offering of time, energy and financial support. Without your generous gifts, our church is just the building across the street from the college.

When all is said and done about loving our neighbor, we will be limited only by our failure to see the need, by neglecting to have compassion for those in need, and by being too involved in our own lives to respond to that need. Let’s not fail at being a neighbor, either as a church or as individuals. Let’s not fail to love.”