December Newsletter

Stupid Things

No one will ever accuse Chris Coakley, the pastor of Grace Student Ministries at Grace Church in Oak Ridge, NJ of being a proud, uppity, rigid member of the clergy. Chris is a man who loves life, loves his community and loves poking fun at himself in order to make a spiritual point. Talking to him the other day, he said that he is excited about the idea of churches without walls. And he is a man who is putting feet to his words.

Chris composes a monthly column in a community newspaper where he writes about "the stupid things I do in life." But those foibles always end with a spiritual lesson. And people outside the walls of the church are starting to take notice.

Chris writes, "Recently I wrote one of my columns on how I turned my hand blue. I had to fix our toilet one night by reaching into the top pot of the toilet and retrieve the chain that fell off the handle. My wife and I use the 2000 flushes blue tablets and we were on our second tablet and I noticed that it was not working as well as the first one. I decided to help it along, so in a moment of genius I reached into the toilet and grabbed the tablet. I then proceeded to shake the tablet… you know, to wake it up. What happened next I will never forget: it looked liked a smurf exploded in my toilet. When I pulled my hand out, I noticed that I had successfully turned my hand blue. I am not talking like just the finger tips a light baby blue; I am talking my whole hand solid blue. At the time I could only think of how stupid I am, I mean after all, the box did say in big letters: 'don’t touch.' After my wife noticed that I had successfully turned my hand blue she ran and got the box and it said that I had to wash my hands for 15 minutes. As I began to think upon my stupid moment, realized how sins leave stains on our souls just as the 2000 flushes blue did on my hand. So I wrote about it in my column and talked about how God has the bleach that will get that sin off our souls - we just need to sit down at His sink and allow Him to wash the stains away. Every month I write about something like this and every month I always connect it to the Cross. Recently I have met some people that have read my column and they have told me that my turning my hand blue was so funny and that it made them realize that their souls were stained. Whenever I meet someone that reads my column I thank God for still using the stupid things that happen to me for the work of His kingdom.'

As the pastor of a growing youth group in this quiet Morris County community, Chris is investing in training his teens to think outside the walls of the church. Recently as a youth group outreach, the teens went apple picking and came back to church where they made apple sauce. Afterwards they handed jars of applesauce out to one local retirement home, a retirement mobile home court that Grace EFC is trying to reach through mowing grass, hanging curtains, helping with cleaning, and to some senior citizens in the church family. Chris comments, "Every month in our student ministries we do a Hand and Feet event, which is designed for three things: To Serve God by serving others; To build a bridge into someone’s life that Jesus can cross; and To help our teens figure out that it is not all about them. One Sunday morning I had one 8th grader ask my wife whether she got an applesauce. The answer was no, but what happened next was amazing. That 8th grader got up, went downstairs to get a jar of applesauce, and then walked right up to this lady and said, "We just wanted to let you know that Grace Youth loves you to the core." Actually that was on the label. The teens thought it was funny to tell people that we loved them to the core because we cored 10 bags of apples the day before. Some senior citizens have actually written thank you notes to our teens; one lady said that it was the best applesauce she has ever tasted and that it meant even more that we actually thought of her. Our teens are learning that we have been cooped up inside the walls of the church too long - it is time for us to meet the woman at the well, to meet Zacheus in the tree, to meet the lame by the pools of our communities. Part of our philosophy of ministry at Grace Student Ministries is to 'Meet each youth where they are.'"

Chris Coakley is one of a number of our Eastern District pastors making a difference, both in and outside the walls of the church.

If you want to contact Chris:
Chris Coakley
Youth Pastor
Grace EFC
973-697-2400
www.gefcnj.org/youth
youth77@optonline.net