December 08, 2008

Just the Right Size

Our newly forming church has been meeting for almost seven months and the selection of elders and deacons should be completed in the next couple of weeks. Even though we’ve all been praying about the need for a building, it’s startling to see God answering prayers without our help. Yesterday we learned that one person has gifted the church with almost three acres of land and another family has stepped forward to be our ‘banker’…oh yes, and that family just happens to have an architect in the family who will draw up the building plans. After the announcement I and a few others wondered aloud if three acres would be enough. How absurd…if we needed more acreage the Lord would have provided us with a larger parcel of land. Obviously, I’ve since repented and asked for forgiveness.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Gail;
-----I’m having a hard time understanding something. I have only visited the church of your fellowship once. It seemed to have a very traditional paradigm. I didn’t hear only the contemporary tunes of celebration always. I didn’t see the drum sets, music stands, and guitars haphazardly racked amongst the spaghetti bowl of electrical wiring. I didn’t see politically correct skits or hear continuous reference to secular themes in the sermon. I did not sense any air of commitment to rolling that fellowship down the mega-church track, connecting with the community and pleasuring the seekers. Maybe I was just there on the wrong Sunday. But my parents attend your church regularly, and I hear it is always that way. By all claims made at the XYZ Church last decade, your church is supposed to be dying.
-----I would ask you, “What gives?” But I think I know. Humility, commitment to the Word of God, mutual respect, and the Holy Spirit. Small wonder what can happen when we are more concerned about righteousness than about image, about peace than about direction, about joy than about getting on a board. “For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit; he who thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.” (Rom 14:17-18) “For [it] does not consist in talk but in power.” ( I Cor 4:20)

Love,
Steve Corey