Sunday Afternoon Ramblings
What a great Sunday! True, we had some hiccups (e.g., yet another glitch with the slideshow), but overall, I thought the entire day went exceptionally well. Here are some highlights from my book.
Adoration led the worship service with a great set. They were stupendous! And more importantly, slideshow glitches aside, I was drawn into a spirit of worship. Truly, our God is great!
The hymn sing was inspirational. As Angela noted, and I myself have often said, I absolutely love hymns, and to sing a whole bunch of people’s favorite hymns always makes for a great time of worship! Words of songs like “Rock of Ages,” “Blessed Assurance,” and “Onward Christian Soldiers” never fail to rouse my faith, and I think “Amazing Grace” should be my personal theme song. Indeed, how amazing is His grace that He saved a wretch like me!
I was extremely encouraged by the response to the message today. At the end of the message, there were several who responded by raising their hands and praying with me. As Nicole pointed out, it wasn’t a normal message for me, but sometimes I really think it takes a little of the out-of-the-ordinary to shake us loose and help us realize our need for God and His grace. Praise the Lord for those who committed themselves anew to following God and opening themselves to the eternal life which He would fill them with!
And then, of course, there was the dinner. I was so very excited to see that virtually everyone stayed for the dinner, and we even had some people straggle in who weren’t able to be in the service. Some expressed disappointment that people would come for the meal but not the service, but I have a little bit different take on things, I guess. You see, they came. And they saw the people of God having a great time as a family. And I pray that for all of our guests who do not already have a church home, the meal and whatever else of our services today they were able to join will serve as a flavor of the sweet fellowship they could have!
Because the fellowship at Debra Heights Wesleyan is indeed sweet! And it is on days like this that our church really shines.
I thank God every day for the privilege of serving such an amazing congregation. And I can’t wait to see what He has in store for us next!
Speaking of what God’s going to do next, a couple of notes about what’s going on this week. The first is the board meeting coming up on Saturday. LBA members will note that the time was different: 9:00 am. This is so we can have an abbreviated version of our leadership retreat. If you are a board member, trustee, or ministry leader, you are welcome to attend. Second, we have some special guests in worship next Sunday. Nicole and I met the Jon and Laura (and family) at Family Camp this past year, and we’re looking forward to seeing and hearing from them again. Just a heads up: we’ll be taking a special offering to support their ministry. And finally, it is my objective to launch a new church website in the next two weeks. If you have any thoughts about things you would like to see on it, etc., please let me know as soon as possible!
And lastly for today, I want to mention just very briefly the little business card you received with your bulletin today. This is something new that I’m going to be trying. Basically, it’s giving you a little advanced warning of the next sermon series that we’ll be entering into. With the advent season upon us, we’re going to be looking at the hope which the incarnation of Christ represents in several areas of life including relationships, temptation, and life in general. I’m really excited about it! But really, if you received one of these cards in your bulletin today, please know that the card wasn’t really for you. Rather, just like the cards we produced last week to hand out as invitations to the Harvest Celebration, it was for you to give to someone else so that they can know what we’re going to be talking about, have something physical to remind them of our church and your invitation, and hopefully have their interest piqued as a result. In other words, the card that you received is a tool for you to use to invite your friends, family members, co-workers, and even perfect strangers off the street. If you need more, I’ll be more than happy to make them!
All right. Well, I guess that’s all for now. I suppose that, from a literary standpoint, that’s not a great conclusion, but I’m a little bit tired. So I’ll close with this. I had a great day today. Our God is great and awesome and mighty and faithful. And I cannot wait to see what He has in store for us this week and beyond! Truly, He is doing something amazing in and through our church!