December 22, 1999
Prayer leads Arlington
church to mission action
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___ARLINGTON--When members of Lake Arlington Baptist Church started praying for their neighbors, they just couldn't help but find ways to help their neighbors as well.
___More than 220 people in the Arlington congregation committed themselves to the Lighthouses of Prayer movement, which calls on Christians to pray daily for a certain number of neighbors.
___Each volunteer was assigned about 25 homes in their neighborhood. But some volunteers were so burdened that some in their neighborhood might be missed that they took responsibility for up to 45 homes, explained Associate Pastor Ray Shannon.
___Church members now are praying regularly for the residents of 7,000 homes in their community.
___Prayer soon turned into a desire for action.
___First, the church put together publicity pieces outlining the church's Christmas and New Year's plans as well as events such as a sermon series for the spring. The mailers invited everyone in the community to participate.
___Then church members decided to involve the community in a canned food drive to benefit Mission Arlington, a local service ministry. The drive collected 5,800 pounds of food--the largest single collection of its kind ever given to Mission Arlington.
___The whole experience--dubbed the Jerusalem Project--has been a huge success, Shannon said.
___"Our purpose for the Jerusalem Project was to get our people active as lighthouses of prayer so they would be concerned about the spiritual condition of the people who live around them," he said. "The canned food drive was designed to give the neighborhood an opportunity to do something for the larger community."
___The Christmas music production drew more than 3,000 people to three performances, and the church has had others call wanting more information about the church.
___About 1,000 people are expected to attend the church's Christmas Eve service.
___The church also is trying to reach out to the community through its involvement in the Angel Tree project. Rather than just putting out the names of needy children, buying them gifts and sending the gifts off for some other organization to deliver, Lake Arlington takes a more hands-on approach.
___Deacons go get the families to be recipients of the Angel Tree gifts and bring them to a meal at the church served by the deacons. The families are presented with the gospel as well as the presents bought by church families, after which the deacons take the families back to their homes.
___All of these endeavors have been energizing to the congregation, Shannon said.
___"I think that not only did our families see there was a definite need, but for some of them it was a definite 'Aha' moment where they not only saw how much they were needed, but realized 'I can do this; I've never done it before, but I can do this,'" he said.
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