This past Saturday, with a great host of volunteers, Centerpoint showed the community of Chillicothe some crazy love in the form of a free carnival.
We had a great day in the sun with up to 500 people, kids and adults like. The carnival had: 4 inflatables, a face painter, 2 stilt-walkers, a train to ride on, food, and a petting zoo courtesy of Petland. We had an amazing slew of businesses offer gift cards to use at their place of business and overall we gave away 123 gift cards.
Many people asked us, “why are you doing this?” We tell them, “we just want to give back to the community and love you guys.”
Then some would say, “so you’re a church, so does this mean we’re signing up for your church or you want us to come there?”
“Well we’d love to have you at centerpoint, but that is not what this is about. We truly want to just love people and provide hope.”
So many times, our efforts within churches are inward-focused, which means, we are doing everything we can to get people to our church. And while some of that is necessary, sometimes we just need to love without strings attached, to provide hope without handing out a tract. If this hope & love we are offering is legit, then the rest will work itself out.
It was so amazing to be a part of this event and to provide people with a day they could enjoy. Many parents admitted they came bc they can’t afford to take their kids on vacations so this was the perfect thing for them; then many of them got free cards to eat at local restaurants, with nothing asked in return.
Today – offer love, offer hope, offer grace & redemption. Do it with no strings attached. Do it bc you love people and at the end of the day, our world needs love.
