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May. 27, 2007
Our Church
Posted in Church God Faith
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Our church faced a big crisis a couple of years ago, but God mercifully brought us through it. (I need to tell that story sometime, a beautiful story of God's amazing grace, but not today.) Since that crisis, God has done a miraculous work in our church. Looking back, I see that He has brought us through three stages that paralled three themes the pastor has led us through. The first stage was "Come and See". Our pastor preached a series on the ways that Come and See is used in the Bible. God used this theme to bring us through the uncertainty we all felt after the crisis; He led us to trust Him to form a cohesive congregation of believers from those who were left after the fallout. We cried out, "What next? What do we do? Where do we go? What is Your plan? Do you have a plan for us?" and God answered, "Come and see-- hang with Me enough to see the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Like the ragtag band of disciples that Jesus called on the shores of Galilee, we mustered up just enough faith to follow Him and see what He had in store for us. The next stage God took us through correlated to the "We are the body" series that the pastor preached, Jason taught to the youth, and even the children studied. More importantly, the church began to live it. New ministries sprung up in our congregation, not because the staff decreed it or a committee dreamed it up. Individual church members began new ministries based on the needs they saw in our congregation: a new prayer group formed; a group began carrying meals to the homebound from our Wednesday night supper; people agreed to provide transportation to doctor's appointments for the elderly and sit with the homebound to relieve their caregivers; and one-hour heroes was born, which simply asks people to donate one hour a week to perform such tasks as sharpening pencils for the pews, cleaning the carpet, mowing the grass, etc. All of the ministries arose from the inside out-- from lay people rather than from the church staff. It was amazing to see the unity and love grow from a group of people now committed to being the Body of Christ that meets at Eastern Heights baptist Church. Our newest stage is the "I Am" phase. The pastor led us through the "I Am's of the Old Testament" and is now preaching on the "I Am's" of Jesus. I see God bringing us to a deeper understanding of who He is so that we can become more like Him. He is purifying and refining us as He reveals His character to us. By holding up the mirror of His Word and gently stripping away the parts of us that are not like Him, He is preparing us, I believe, for service to our community. To be like Him, we must be ready to take the gospel to a world in need of Him. I suspect the next stage will be something along the lines of "Go and Tell." Or, better yet, "Here Am I." Whatever the next stage is, I pray that we will all say to the Great I Am, here am I. |
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May. 28, 2007 - Untitled Comment
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