Wow! What a great Sunday to start a new story together. God filled our worship on Sunday with a different type of fireworks – the praise of God’s people as we begin walking into the future God has planned for us. I am thankful for Rev. Jan Thompson who crafted our Call to Worship and Bobby Ivey who developed the order of worship and the Sanctuary Choir and musicians for their sharing their gifts. I want to especially thank Kathy Crowe for being the first person to give her faith story. Being first is never easy, and I am thankful Kathy said “yes” when I called.
Reflecting on this worship experience, the children’s sermon continues coming back to me. In case you missed none of the children knew my name … even my own daughter failed to speak up. Now, I have always loved being around children. Their energy, faith and trust remind me of what the Kingdom of God really is all about. After Sunday’s children’s sermon they also will remind me of the importance of never taking ourselves too seriously. Remember when you gave your child that expensive gift and they ended up playing with the box all afternoon instead. It’s something like that. Children do not care about titles or awards, celebrity or position – they care if you love them. They want to know if we will spend time with them. They learn by being around us.
As we move forward in ministry together, we can always look back on July 4th, 2010 as the day God began writing a new story in our lives, church, community and world. As we participate in this great story, let us remember the lesson of the children from this day. God does not care how big our buildings are or how splashy our worship service or even how well we do the religious parts of church. God desires that we “cease to do evil and learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, and plead for the widow” (Isaiah 1:16b-17). I’m sure it will be a lesson we will all be learning for a long time. See you Sunday.
Eric
No comments:
Post a Comment