Every Friday afternoon, from 4:00 to 6:00, our Prayer Tent stands quietly on the front lawn of TCC. Cars pull in, people walk up and sit with us for prayer. Some stop out of curiosity, some out of desperation, some stop because God has been stirring something in them all week and they finally decide to follow the nudge. It’s simple. It’s steady. And it is one of the clearest pictures of what Christian service to the community actually looks like. Not dramatic. Not complicated. Not reserved for the spiritually elite. Just ordinary believers bringing concerns to the throne. It is TCC shining as a city on a hill, pointing to Christ. And as we move toward Troy Daze later this year, with its crowds and conversations and unexpected encounters, I find myself thinking about how both the Prayer Tent and Troy Daze highlight the same truth: God calls His people to serve, and He meets them in their weakness when they do.
Scripture never treats service as optional. It never presents it as a spiritual elective for the confident or the extroverted or the trained. It presents it as the normal life of anyone who belongs to Jesus. Jesus Himself says in Matthew 20:26–28 that greatness in His kingdom is expressed through serving. Paul tells the Galatians in Galatians 5:13 that through love we serve one another. Peter tells the church in 1 Peter 4:10 that each believer has received a gift to use in serving. Romans 12:6–8 lists service as one of the Spirit-given functions of the church. Ephesians 4:11–12 says leaders exist to equip the saints for the work of ministry. The pattern is unmistakable: if you belong to Christ, you serve Christ. And you serve His people. And you serve His mission. Not someday. Not when you feel ready. Not when you feel confident. Not when everything feels prepared. Not when everything seems in order. Now. Why? Because service is not about our ability or inability, it’s not about convenience or circumstance or our preparedness. It’s about following Jesus.
Jesus has a way of sending His people before they feel prepared. He did it with the Twelve. He sent them out in Matthew 10 and Luke 9 long before they were polished, long before they were experienced, long before they fully understood who He was. He sent them unprepared; He sent them incapable of doing what He called them to do. He sent them dependent. They weren’t ready by any human measure. He sent them anyway. And in doing so, He taught them something that every Christian still needs to learn: when God sends you, you go, and He works out the rest.
That truth sits at the center of Christian service. God does not wait for us to feel adequate. He does not wait for us to feel strong. He does not wait for us to feel capable. He calls us, and then He supplies what we lack. He sends us, and then He strengthens us. He places us in situations where our insufficiency becomes obvious, and then He fills
the gap with His power. This is why Jesus says to Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9: “My power is made perfect in weakness.” Not in comfort. Not in familiarity. Not in the places where we feel naturally gifted. In weakness. In insufficiency. In the moments where we know we are not enough.
You may be reading this and thinking…but what if I fail? What if I make a mess of things? What if I say or pray the wrong thing? Beloved, here is the wonderful truth about following Jesus: when we walk in obedience we do not need to fear failure. For as we move in dependence to Him, our sovereign God uses even our failures to further His kingdom. He refines us through them. He teaches us through them. And He often ministers miraculously even in and through our failures. As we give everything to Him—our successes, our weaknesses, our fears, and even our failures—He weaves all of it into His work. Failure in obedience is never wasted.
And this is another reason that outreach matters. Not because outreach is flashy or dramatic or impressive. But because outreach places us in situations where we cannot rely on ourselves. And in those situations of dependence, you feel the shift, you are confronted with your dependence. You feel the reality that God is doing the work. God is giving the words. God is opening the doors. God is sustaining the moment. Service exposes our insufficiency, and God’s power fills the gap.
This is why the Prayer Tent matters so deeply. It is not just an activity. It is a weekly opportunity for our church to step into the kind of service where God’s power becomes unmistakable.
And when Troy Daze arrives, it becomes a larger and radically different version of what outreach can be. More people. More conversations. More opportunities. More moments where God surprises us. But the heart is the same. The calling is the same. The dependence is the same. The God who works through us at the Prayer Tent is the same God who works through us at Troy Daze.
If you’re not currently serving in outreach, the Prayer Tent is a wonderful place to start. It’s simple. It’s relational. It’s steady. It’s right here on our own property. You don’t need a script. You don’t need a title. You don’t need a special gift. You just need willingness. You just need to show up. You just need to trust that when God sends you, He will work out the rest. If you’ve served before, this is your reminder to keep doing so. If you feel insufficient, this is your invitation to experience His sufficiency. If you feel nervous, this is your encouragement to step out and see that God has you and your service in His hand.
Church family, the Prayer Tent and Troy Daze are not merely ministry programs. They are places where God uses and sustains His people. They are opportunities to see the gospel become visible in simple conversations and quiet prayers. They are placed where the church steps into the mission of Jesus in the most ordinary and beautiful ways. So let’s step into the work together. Let’s serve together. Let’s trust God together. And let’s watch what He does.
For more information on how you can serve, please contact me at (248)832-2424 or briantorres@troychapel.org. May He who is the light of the world shine through us.
In His love,
Pastor Brian