O n Sunday morning September 4th, Northside Church of the Nazarene in Fort Worth had the first "Worship In The Park" at White Branch Park near the church.  The goal was to be the church in the community.  This is one of our vision steps.  We prepared the congregation for about two months with sermons and sign up lists.  

We prepared the community by passing out flyers at the park and bombarding Social Media with paid advertisements.  The plan was: worship from 10-11, cookout for our church, guests and those in the park from 11:30-12:30 and games for kids and adults from 12:30-2:00.  God blessed our effort and we had over two hundred in worship and many more in the cook out.  

Many of our people went out into the park and invited people and kids to come over and eat with us.  Some were reluctant at first but when they smelled the cook out and saw the great selection of food they were won over.  Relationships were started with many people, most of whom do not attend church.  We are praying and believing that these relationships will produce new followers of Jesus Christ and family members for the church.  The following is a guiding principle for us.  "If coming to church doesn't equip us to be The Church, or if we are coming to church so often that we don't have time to be the church, then coming to church is violating the purpose of The Church."  (A sermon point from Pastor Lynn Nichols)