One of the challenges throughout the pandemic was our inability to connect on a personal level with many of those in our church family. As a result, we want to create space and create opportunities for our church family to connect. We want to do this through Sunday Gatherings, through Church Camp, but we also want this to filter down into the day-to-day lives of our entire church family. Hence, we are announcing the Tapestry Love Dare.
Beginning August 1, we will be challenging individuals and families within Tapestry to find tangible ways to Love one another.
Here’s How to Participate
1. Sign up online here or on the sign-up sheet at the Worship Gathering.
2. You will receive an email during the first week of August randomly giving you your family or individual to love and a guide on how to love them.
3. Spend some time praying, asking God to show you how you can best love the family or individual you’ve been given.
4. Make a plan and commit to “making it happen” within the month of August!
· Remember, some church family members are still taking COVID precautions. Be considerate of others’ personal preferences and boundaries as you plan.
5. Document your experience! We’d love for you to share how you and your family were blessed through the Tapestry Love Dare Challenge!
6. Consider ways in which you can continue on. Is there an unchurched neighbor who might also appreciate being loved dared?
Love Dare Ideas
** This list is not exhaustive. It’s meant only to give you some ideas on how you might get started!
1. Take a friend’s car through the car wash! Or, show up at their house with a vacuum and cleaner and give the inside a good detail.
2. Bake a dessert or morning treat and drop it off unannounced.
3. Have the kids write or draw encouraging notes and deliver them.
4. Yard clean-up day! Offer to mow a friend’s lawn, water their plants, or plant some flowers.
5. Invite a friend over for an afternoon coffee on the porch. Give an hour of undivided attention to each other.
6. Ask a friend for a list of prayer requests. Commit to praying over the list every day for a week.
7. Offer to watch a friend’s kids for a few hours so the parents can have some time for errands, a date, or an important meeting.
8. Commit to texting a friend each morning with an encouraging message and a scripture verse.
9. Invite friends to join your family at a local park for a playdate or relaxing evening firepit.
10. Drop by a friend’s house just to pray over them. Invite the family to sit and be still as you and your family intercede for them.
Love Dare Reminders
1. Get the whole family involved! Think of special ways you can include your kids.
2. Loving well doesn’t require a lot of money! There are plenty of “free” ways to bless someone or love dare a friend. If you do spend money, make sure not to spend more than $10 total.
3. Be creative! Use your family’s talents and gifts to bless others!
4. Make it fun! You might consider trying to pull off your love dare in secret! The point is not to add “one more thing” to your list of things to do… but rather, it’s to practice being a family who loves well. Plus, as you seek to love others, we know you yourself will be blessed! (Luke 6:38)
Love Dare Inspiration
Jesus said, “Love as I have loved you.” Therefore, we can’t love too much.
Amy Carmichael
Love one another. Forgive one another. Pray for one another. Bear one another’s burdens. Be devoted to one another. Regard one another as more important than yourself. Do not speak against one another. Do not judge one another. Show tolerance for one another. Be kind to one another. Speak truth to one another. Build up one another. Comfort one another. Care for one another. Stimulate one another to love and good deeds.
Philip Yancey – Inspired from the “one another” scriptures.
You’ve not lived today until you’ve done something for someone who can never repay you.
John Bunyan
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
Galatians 5:6