The Cafe at Borders in Milestone Shopping Center is a great place for people of difference religious backgrounds or no religious background to come together to openly dialogue about spiritual things. I hope that we can add some more places for informal discussion without any pressure or “hard sellling” - just interaction and conversation.

It’s been great to get into so many spiritual topics at the Open Meetings at Borders every Wednesday night. I think people want to engage each other about spiritual things but not be judged about whatever they want to express. There are few places that try to create that kind of atmosphere - especially the church. We want to create environments where people can openly express things about God, faith and spirituality - even a disbelief about things if that’s what they’re feeling.

Doing ordinary acts of kindness is a great way to connect with new people in the community. This past Sunday we extended a little bit of kindness in our community. Our focus was to say thanks to people working on Sunday. A couple of teams spent some time going out into the Germantown and Clarksburg area giving out doughnuts and individual gift packages to people working in stores and at community service facilities. We stopped by a police station, a firehouse, a hospital emergency center and a number of stores that were open for business on Sunday.

The response was really something! Just about everyone that we gave packages to greeted us with a smile and a warm thank you. We left some cards with them that said, “A simple way of saying God loves. Let us know if we can be of any assistance.” No strings attached either. We were able to connect with some about The Church Upcounty and what we’re all about. It’s only the beginning of extending kindness to our community and beyond.

I think God really enjoys intervening and surprsing people. We were hanging out at the Open Meeting (or Open2Talk Discussion Group) at the Borders cafe last week. A couple sitting next to our table jumped into the discussion topic - Temple, synagogue, church … none of them connect with me so why bother with God?

It turned out that they had a Jewish background. We began to share with each other about our own spiritual backgrounds and just learn. Before we knew it they were closing and we were still sharing. We went all over the place spiritually by discussing the Old Testament from a Jewish perspective and also getting into the New Testament from a Jewish perspective too. It was great!

God made us to live life on purpose - not just exist. I think that sometimes we settle for being content in life when there’s so much more to experience - especially when it somes to a spiritual connection. Climbing Mt. Blanc, the highest mountain in the French Alps, is a perfect illustration. There are the serious mountain climbers who want to go for it and reach the summit at over 15,800 feet.

Then there are the not-so-serious tourists who enjoy the mountain but are content with going up just part of the way. They may reach about 5,000 or 6,000 feet by lifts and the train, and then hang out in one of the restaurants. It’s nice. But it’s not the summit. Experiencing the summit is beyond imagination and experience. God is trying to get our attention to go beyond contentment in life by going halfway up the mountain and go all the way to experience of the summit! Explore what the summit living is all about this Sunday at our monthly Open House service at the Regal here in Germantown.