Why I’m Signing Up For Mobilize

Around nine months ago my husband, Spencer, and I found ourselves in a very disheartening situation; we weren’t sure that Fellowship North was right for us. We loved the sermons, the location, the mission, and even the goals but…we didn’t have friends at church. We prayed for God to lead us to the right activities, we regularly attended service, [not so regularly] attended New Community, signed up for classes, and even tried to get into a bible study group, but it seemed like any connections we made were gone as quickly as they began.

Finally, after many failed attempts at finding meaningful relationships within the church, we assumed that maybe God had different plans for us. We decided to start to look for somewhere else to call home. We were right, God did have different plans for us, but they were drastically different than what we thought.

Within a few weeks of verbally stating that we were going to look for a new church, I received an e-mail from a lady I had never met, Donna Hall. She said she heard through the grapevine that I knew a little bit about writing and asked if I would be interested in helping create the learning material for something called “Mobilize”. I was confused, and a little annoyed. Why would someone at the church need help from little ole me when I hadn’t been able to find anyone that thought I was worthwhile before. Luckily (for Donna, I thought at the time), I am completely incapable of saying no so I decided to meet with her and see if I could help. Luckily (for me, I realized later), I had an amazing meeting with her and Sarabeth Jones where they explained the intent of Mobilize.

I learned that Mobilize is a five week session that was being created to help encourage people to take action toward strengthening their relationship with God and to become fully involved in His work. By attending Mobilize, the goal was that participants would not only dive into God’s will for them but also learn more about Fellowship North, how to get involved, how to meet people, and how they could get the most out of their church. Donna looked me in the eyes and said, “We feel like there may be people out there in the church that want to be more involved, want to be moving, and want to BE the church but they just don’t know how.”

…um…hello?? God, is that you?

I immediately teared up in the meeting as an astonished Donna and Sarabeth stared at me wondering what this girl’s problem might be. After telling them my struggles with fitting in and finding friends within the church they both beamed with excitement and for the next few months we used their expertise and my hardships to create the Mobilize that you can sign up for today. *Disclaimer: they did way more than me, I just typed and stuff*

Looking back I think I understand why Spencer and I went through those struggles. Had I not been so troubled and discontent, I wouldn’t have been able to be the team captain for all those others out there feeling like I did at that time. When I thought God wasn’t listening to me and I needed to go elsewhere to meet my own needs, he was really just preparing and strengthening my skills for what He had planned for my future.

I look forward to making meaningful connections with everyone that has signed up for Mobilize starting on Sunday the 26^th (and if you haven’t signed up, there’s still time). See you there!

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Jennifer Ragsdale lives in North Little Rock and is the Sr. Human Resources Generalist for Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health.  She loves spending her time outdoors, with family and friends, and strengthening her relationship with God. Note from Sarabeth: Jennifer’s skills as a technical writer were invaluable in the process of crafting the notebook we use in Mobilize, and her questions and concerns affected the way we shaped the entire class – we’re so grateful she took a step and decided to help!