Our Identities in Christ...and chili!
With Fall weather approaching, one of the things we’re looking forward to as New City Church is our 8th annual Chili Cook-off! After taking a year off, we’re excited to be able to host the event again. The Chili Cook-off is always a great time of fellowship with our family in Christ, as well as a time for a little competition! We award winners in the categories of red chili, white chili, and smoked meats. It’s a lot of fun to sample the creative recipes that everyone contributes, and we definitely have some great cooks and BBQ’ers in our family!
One of the things I love about this event is seeing the Body of Christ contributing and using their gifts to make it happen. A family in our church has a beautiful property that they graciously offer to host the event. They make sure that everything from tents, lighting, and even inflatables for the kids are set up for everyone to enjoy the event. Many in our congregation sign up to bring chili, smoked meats, drinks, and desserts. Adults volunteer to take shifts supervising the kids as they play in the inflatables. Those who serve our youth come up with activities like ultimate frisbee to engage the youth. We even have volunteers to tally the results from the cook-off and announce the winners!
Seeing the Body of Christ come together and make an event like this so enjoyable for everyone is super encouraging as a member of the church staff. The reason why is because the event doesn’t fall entirely on our shoulders! Outside dividing up the orders for lighting, tents, inflatables there’s honestly not much for us to do, besides show up and enjoy the event just like everyone else! That’s possible because we are blessed to be a church that sees being a servant as part of our identity in Christ! We serve because Jesus served us in the most amazing way possible, by offering up His life for our sins! If we are united to Him by faith and are being transformed into His image, then we also are servants! This event is one example of coming together and serving one another and enjoying one another as family in Christ.
However, we aren’t only family and servants in Christ, we’re also missionaries. This event isn’t just for our enjoyment, but also the enjoyment of those God has placed in our lives who may not trust in Jesus or might be disconnected from a church family. This is why we encourage our Missional Communities (our version of small groups) to make this event something called a 3rd place.
The idea behind a 3rd place is simple, if our Sunday Worship Gathering is the “1st place” and our MC Family Gathering is the “2nd place”, then a “3rd place” is just an opportunity for our MC’s to do something together that isn’t “churchy” (like a Bible study or prayer meeting) and invite those in our normal, everyday lives (where we “live, work, and play”) to join us. This often looks like going to the park or a local restaurant downtown. Our hope is that these times help us deepen relationships and provide opportunities to share the gospel. We see this as an opportunity to invite people into our family and display the love of Christ in our life together. The Chili Cook-off is a great opportunity to do just that!
We’d love to have you join us! Invite friends! Enter the competition! The Cook-off will be on Saturday, Nov. 13th from 5-8pm. The event is held at Sugar Valley Farm (3255 Hamlin Rd., Lizella, GA 31052). You can click this link to RSVP and sign up to bring a food item and enter the chili or smoke meats competition. We hope to see you there!