Riverside EMC –
TGeneral Superintendent
Max Edwards
March
25, 2025
People Striving to B.L.E.S.S. Their Neighbors
Pastor Brian Gordon has a rich and beautiful history with the church he now pastors in Salem, Virginia. Riverside now sits just mere feet from Pastor Brian’s boyhood home.
In Brian’s own words: “I was 14 years old when God called me at youth camp … I remember sitting in the chapel, and most students had left but they had told us if we were just struggling with wanting to know what God wanted us to do with our lives, we could stay and pray, and most people left, but I had stayed. God whispered six words into my ears as I sat there listening for His voice: ‘Why don’t you give your testimony?’
I am thankful … some of you who have been here a long time remember Lou Kugler. The Sunday after I was saved I walked in the doors of this church, and I didn’t know Lou from Adam, but he had somehow heard that I went to the altar and accepted Jesus, and he made a beeline for me, and he threw his arms around me, and he said, ‘Son, I am so proud of you! And I want you to know that if there is anything I can do for you … if there is any way that I can help you in your walk with Jesus, I will do it!’ And I knew he meant it. … and I found so many other people in this church who wrapped their arms around me and loved me …”
Excerpted from Pastor’s March 16th , 2025, message - Click here to view the entire service: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8OVU WE8k
Riverside EMC has been urging its people to “BLESS” their neighbors in the name of Christ. “BLESS” is an acronym that stands for five principles meant to meaningfully reach neighbors with the Gospel.
B - Begin with prayer
L – Listen
E – Eat with them (invite them to a meal)
S – Serve
S – Share your story with them
Dave and Jon Ferguson wrote the book: BLESS: 5 Everyday Ways to Love Your Neighbor and Change the World It introduced the BLESS acronym as a witnessing plan You can find the book on CBD by clicking here: https://www.christianbook.com/bless-everyday-your-neighbor-change-world/dave-ferguson/9781684510887/pd/510886?event=ESRCN|M
An app called “Bless” has been developed that can help organize a person’s efforts to reach out to their neighbors. You can find out more about the “Bless” app at: https://app.blesseveryhome.com/
Pastor Brian’s story of how Riverside embraced him as a young man is a rich and glorious example of how important it is to simply love the people around us that God has brought into our geographic sphere. The wonderful truth is that we don’t have to preach them a 3-point message - - we simply need to tell them our story, serve them, and love them. If we fail to do so, who will do it? You can use the “Bless Every Home” approach or some other way, but we all should work to honor the Lord’s command to love our neighbors.