THE SEED LETTER

When you say yes to God’s call - just be ready! I heard these words many years ago, and they did not carry much weight.

September 22nd, 2019 was a life changing event in my life and hopefully, the lives of some very good friends. That Sunday was the first time we held a worship service at Outreach.

I was given the blessing and the task of doing what I felt God was pressing on my heart. I had talked to Jason, and he was all in from our first discussion.

I knew we had to do something for our young people where they felt at home. I have had quite a few of our friends from Outreach tell me that they have tried church, and “It just wasn’t for them.”

We all know how tough it can be to walk into a church for the first time. I have seen the situation play out first hand after going to an established church. The structure and feel can be intimidating for anyone. That is why I felt that trying something on our own campus could maybe work.

I had just never, EVER envisioned myself leading a church of any kind! My pastors Erik and Jeff, helped me to see that if you are called to something, God is already qualifying you!

Even though our space is not large, it was perfect for September 22nd and the present-future. Furniture was moved around and 25 folding chairs borrowed from Englewood Church were added. Now we have a home for our new worship space - “The Seed”.

The attendance was a beautiful mixture of current and aged out Outreach peeps. We had over 35 people in attendance! We had three beautiful families with their babies! We also had staff and some loving friends to help us get started from Common Ground Northeast attend. We were blessed to have Sonna, John and Dana lead us with some beautifully unplugged worship songs!

My favorite part of the service was after I talked about how the name for The Seed came about - from Matthew 13: 1-23. We then broke up into small groups, and we all talked about which of the four seeds that Jesus talked about in the parable we were, right then. A seed on rock (pavement)? A seed barely growing in a rocky place? A plant growing amongst weeds? A plant/tree bearing good fruit?

The discussion time was beautiful.

Breaking up and sharing will be a constant every time we meet. In my heart I always feel that our stories are so important to our health and healing.

Lastly, we had a meal together, because we knew that there were a few people attending that were bypassing dinner at their current living arrangements to come and hang out with us.

It was so fun hanging out and eating with everyone! As we were cleaning up one of my buddies told me that it was exciting to know that this could be “his” church!

After was over, we had quite a few of the youth very excited about next Sunday. I had to let them know we are taking the process slow. Our current idea for the future is we will meet again in October and if that goes well and everyone wants to continue, we will then begin to meet every other week.

We are very thankful for the friends that came to worship, our incredible volunteer team, Outreach, Common Ground Northeast and Common Ground Midtown for their support in how God allowed The Seed to be planted on the near-eastside of Indianapolis.

Humbled and blessed,

Anthony Dumas

CGNortheast, Elder