Red Letter Outreach

"Stars of Sacrifice" is a celebration honoring the brave men who served our country during World War II. These veterans, residing at the Tennessee State Veterans Home Care in Murfreesboro, TN, spend their days in quiet solitude, longing for connection and companionship. We aim to uplift their spirits and express our gratitude on behalf of the Church for their invaluable contributions to our nation.

As we reflect on their selfless service, we are reminded of the importance of community and support, especially for those who may feel isolated. This is where your church can make a meaningful difference. We believe that the church should be God's hands extended, offering encouragement and companionship to those who have served our nation. 

We echo the sentiment that getting involved and reaching out to those who may feel secluded and alone is a vital ministry. Visits, filled with genuine conversation and camaraderie, can make a world of difference to those who have given so much for our freedom.

Together, let us honor our veterans and show them the love and gratitude they deserve. 

In the harmony of hymns and the impassioned words within our churches, truly LOVE is reflected openly and loudly and yet as congregations exit the building, they face the world that JESUS warned us about, the world that in, not having loved him, also does not always love us.  This is reflected in the rise of suicide amongst our teenage population, the perpetuity of stories of abuse in our community ranging from bullying in our common grounds to sex trafficking blurring our world borders and the suffering that wavers between neighborhoods for entire populations now accepted as "the homeless" and for the veterans who once defended our homes and, in numbers, it is astounding. These once rare stories are now common tales that keep unscalable walls around living beings and isolate them inside the crisis in mental health that is historically now at an all-time high.  

As we search for answers, perhaps we need not look so far and wide or dig for complex theories or impossible reaches because in those doorways that we walk through that lead to outside of the church building we are not leaving the church behind but rather extending its walls to the outside where it is so needed. The words we heard and spoke and  sang inside must come out and accompany us there with us, energizing us and leading us that we may be, as John guided us to be (John 3:18) "Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth,"  that we may do what must be done, implement what is needed by those who are our sisters, our brothers and, yes, our children and the children of God, Our Father! 

We, as a church, are The God Squad, we strengthen our focus so that it is not distracted by the temporary glitter of the outside world and we retain the church walls around us at all times in order to, as Christians, embrace, heal and  solve, with the miracle that  only God has given us so generously and so perfectly: LOVE......LOVE through which we can persevere, find solutions, absorb answers and empower action. For the direction we follow as members of the squad is still the simple one, from the way, the truth and the life that leads above all and is always saying lovingly to us "My command is this: love each other as I have loved you."