Mark, Seed project leader
"To have real gospel transformation, you must have true community, as well as solid theology behind your relationship with Christ, but you also need service. When you don’t have good deeds along with community and theology, it’s like you’re missing the other half. Nathan [Ivey] has done a good job, through Seed, of making it as easy as possible for people to do projects within a one-mile radius of Sojourn, as well as intentional relationships in the larger city of Louisville and international Seed, with mission trips like those [to Sudan] with Nadus Films. We’re just trying to make it as easy as possible to plug in and not have to do any planning or preparation, just sign up online on Seed’s website and then show up. You work an hour or two hours, and every little bit makes change.
Our whole goal with Seed is to glorify God and make disciples. The only way we can do that is by building relationships over time. Picking up trash may not seem like a big deal, but when you have forty Sojourners every month picking up trash and the neighbors see you pick up trash month after month, they realize that it’s Sojourn, that Sojourn does this for them, to serve them. Then, they turn around and get a knock on their door, and there’s another Sojourner to check their gutters. It’s just one thing after another. You may not feel the benefits or the power of the gospel while you’re picking up trash, but that’s exactly what Seed is all about. You are planting a seed for another Sojourner to later get into someone’s life in the neighborhood and watch that seed grow."