By Rev. Robert Ortiz
Asbury Pastor
In response to a sermon series on being a Missional Church, a church serving beyond its four walls, the Asbury Praise Band and I spent the month of October on the road. We left the safe confines of Asbury and headed out to help some of our sister churches in the San Antonio area with music and preaching. We were able to serve the following congregations: Windsong Christian Center on the far southwest side of San Antonio, Resurrection UMC on the far southeast corner of the county, Harlandale UMC in south central SA, and Epworth UMC in southeast SA.
We invited the Asbury membership to join us on the road, and some did. If they couldn’t join us, we invited them to worship at one of the five services on the main campus at AHUMC, and some did that. We also asked those who would like to worship in Spanish to join our community partner, Spanish Christian Church, in their worship service, and a few did that too.
Through this experience the Praise band was able to bless close to three hundred people, and I was blessed to share the Word of God with three of the congregations. Each congregation was encouraged and was able to experience a different style of worship, and each congregation asked us to return soon. It was such a blessing to see new relationships being formed, along with the possibility of collaborating in ministry with these churches. It was also a blessing to see the band grow closer through this experience. All my life I wanted to be a “roadie” for a band. I can now check that off my bucket list and leave that work to much younger people. It’s hard work! I praise God for the response we received and look forward to the next opportunity that finds us “On the Road Again” (sounds like a good title for a song).
