I'm very grateful that God called us to serve Him (and you) at Grace Community Church in Rincon. Of course, human beings quickly lose sight of the obvious blessings of God. I am grateful that my life is drilled down into community that is minutes from where I live. I am grateful that God is allowing us to be a part of a single congregation again (in the past I travelled church to church as part of my assignment). I am grateful for the people we are getting to know here at GCC. I am grateful to get to be part of a team of elders who serve the congregation. I'm grateful to be preaching God's Word as a primary focus of my calling.
I wanted to remind us of three big needs for us to experience vitality and momentum as we remain in the flow of the Holy Spirit:
1. Keep a commitment to meaningful prayer. When significant movements of God occur, it is always because the condition of fervent prayer has been answered first. When I was ordained to Gospel ministry, a friend slipped in the room late and handed me a note that said, "Inspect what you expect." It took a while for it sink in. What he meant was if something is important to you, check behind it to see that it is happening.
If prayer is vital (and I absolutely am convinced that it is), how are we doing regarding our prayer gatherings? We meet each Sunday at 9:30 to pray. It matters so much. We are going to keep this commitment, many or few, but it would be delightful to see more members committed to arriving early to pray.
Of course, I hope that gathering once a week to pray with other Christians to pray is the tip of the iceberg in terms of what your praying life is about. But prayer "pulls the rope below that rings the bell above in the ears of God" (Spurgeon).
2. Bring unusual energy to outreach. Outreach is just caring for those around us who are not connected to Christian fellowship. It is caring enough to pray for them and reach out to them. Invite | Invest | Ignite. I so hope this will catch on! Invite others. Invest from your own life in connection. Ignite, well that's God's part!
I see some of you inviting others. Don't give up. I have invited plenty of people and not a large percentage of them have come. I'm not giving up, though. I know that we we have in Jesus is the most important thing they could want, even if they don't want it yet.
There is also the issue of reaching out to people who have drifted away from fellowship. In the post-covid world, regaining the priority of attending church faithfully is a challenge for many people. We are supposed to constantly nudge each other to community, love and good works (Hebrews 10:25).
3. Practice truth-telling. Don't misunderstand, I do not assume that telling the truth wasn't a priority at GCC before. But one of the characteristics of declining congregations is denial. Speaking about the current reality is taboo. Maybe if we don't talk about it, it isn't real. Churches have problems. One of the first realities that confronted me here, is how difficult the situation of serving in the post-covid, post-Christian world has become.
One of my friends likes to point out the answer: BUT GOD! God isn't intimidated by the immenseness of the task. He's still God! He's still able!
There are still a many different kinds of tasks to be done here:
- There is a ton of facility work left to be done.
- There is the recovery (or evolution) of meaningful small group ministry.
- There is the task of meaningful member care.
- There is the task of taking membership and commitment more seriously.
- There is the task of taking our discipleship farther and farther.
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