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May 3, 2009 Acts 17:21, Isaiah 43:19
2009 Lead Pastor Report
God is at work in our midst. Never think, not even for a moment, that He isn’t. It doesn’t matter who or where the church is. He is at work. Read the opening chapters of Revelation if you can’t believe that. Jesus tells John to write seven letters to seven churches. Those churches were not the cream of the crop. Most of them were riddled with problems. With most of them Jesus had issues. He said, “I have something against you.” (2:4, 2:14, 2:20, 3:2, 3:15) Jesus called five of the seven churches to repentance. The fact that He said that is proof that God was involved. Many of them were in rough shape. But even with their imperfections God was active and involved. He knew what their struggles were. He offered them solutions to their struggles. Struggles in the life of the Church do not force God out the door. He does not leave and abandon His body. The God I serve is bigger than that. He does not walk away from His people who are less than ideal. God is at work. He sees what is holy and honours that. He sees what is unholy and works to transform those lives. You ask me, “What is the evidence that God is at work here in Summerside?” 1. We have a wonderful Youth Pastor. God has blessed us with the coming of Pastor Elliott Innes. He needs your prayer and love every bit as much as I have these past 7 years. God was at work bringing Pastor Elliott and Dena and their children to us. 2. We have the wonderful gift of Pastor Steve Guy. He is our Lay Pastor of Outreach and Community Life. Over the past 8 months hee has volunteered all his time. God was at work as Steve and Elaine were miraculously brought to us. Elliott’s and Steve’s reports are evidence that God has been at work. 3.-7. The same can be said for the Ministry Reports submitted this year. God has been at work raising up leaders of our ministry departments. 8.-10. God has been at work through Phyllis, Glenda and Alexandra. He has been at work through their Councils and Boards. He has worked through their ministries. 11. God has been at work through Peter Gallant and our Praise Teams. 12. God has been at work through our Church Board members. 13. God has been at work through our finances. It has not been an easy year for us as a congregation. Ministry is not a simple and straightforward calling. It is as complex as you and I are. In the midst of all the complexity, God is at work. God’s work always brings the challenge of new things. Acts chapter 17 shows the impact that new things can have on community. Paul’s journeys had taken him to the city of Athens. The people of Athens were an unusual bunch. They were extremely interested in new things. They spent their time in nothing else besides talking about new things. Paul’s message of the Gospel was definitely something new. They had never heard anything like it before. The idea of resurrection was something new to them. Listen in on their conversation with Paul “You are saying some rather strange things, and we want to know what it’s all about.” (It should be explained that all the Athenians as well as the foreigners in Athens seemed to spend all their time discussing the latest ideas.) So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows: ‘Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way,’” (Acts 17:20-22) The KJV says they spent “their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.” Elsewhere in Acts 17 there were people who resisted this new thing. They wanted nothing to do with it. They became openly hostile to Paul and his companions. They found this new thing threatening. Doing a New Thing is a journey that can lead through dangerous and treacherous territory. With which group do your actions and attitudes reveal allegiance? Do you feel threatened by the prospect of new things? Or does the possibility of something new create excitement and anticipation? God Himself says, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:18-19) Jesus was God’s ultimate new thing. He unraveled the bondage of the Law and sin with the gift of grace. He was living water flowing through lives wasted and devastated by sin. He was God in flesh which was unthinkable. He was the impossible made possible. He confronted the complacent. He challenged the constricted. He calmed the conflicted. And He claimed the captured. Jesus is God doing a new thing and in doing it He was rejected. Have you ever wondered why Jesus was rejected? God knew exactly why Jesus would be rejected. People could not give up the old things. They kept their focus in reverse, dwelling on the past. God asks us, “Do you perceive the new thing springing up?” It is easy to miss. Doing a new thing is a test of loyalty. Doing a new thing is a test of faith. Doing a new thing is a test of nerves and resolve. Doing a new thing is a test of community. From time to time I have mentioned my oak tree in our back yard. It looks to have survived its third winter in our yard. It is a new oak tree. When I brought it home it still had the acorn attached to its root. Like any new tree, it is a long way from producing fruit. It has not become surrounded by a little forest of offspring oak trees. Oak trees do not produce acorns during the first 20 years of growth. Some oak trees require 50 years to become productive. My little new tree has a long way to go. New things are like that. But you know what? I am not going to stop caring for it and working on it. When we do the new things God leads us to do there are no guarantees. We will not always see instant results. How do we respond to that reality? We could become complacent, lazy, indifferent, impatient, or frustrated. We could complain and entertain the notion to pull up roots. That is the human tendency. Actually it is nothing short of temptation. Satan gets his stir stick flinging us around. He will try anything to disrupt and discourage. He will entice us to resist the new thing God is doing. Take the time to check out Israel’s O.T. history. There is plenty of evidence of their resistance. Or, we can respond to God’s calls with faithful obedience. Faithful obedience is the environment where God can do a new thing. This year He has been at work leading us to do a new thing. Doing something new is never easy. Doing a new thing does not always result in immediate fruit. We have been open to do a new thing with Him. God is at work in our church. If you remember nothing else from this report remember that fact. We ought to be excited about the challenges we are facing. We ought to be thrilled that we are experiencing change. We do not change just for the sake of change. We do not change to make us feel like we are accomplishing something. We change because our Mission Statement demands it. Our Mission Statement challenges us at the core of our being. Our Mission Statement demands that we be a people after God’s own heart. It necessitates the purifying, empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. A Community Devoted to Jesus embraces the dynamic presence of Jesus. What can you devote to Jesus this year that is new? For example, what new person in our community can you invest your life into? Who can you encourage to grow in their devotion to Jesus? Who can you introduce to Jesus, our living, active, present Lord and Saviour? That is the challenge before us today and in this new church year. A Community Devoted to Jesus holds nothing back. There is no sacrifice too great. Every area of life is identified with Jesus. Pastor Elliott showed me a graph that was startling. It is a graph from one of our ministries. It says something to me. It speaks of a very non-committed approach to being devoted to Jesus. It says, “You can’t count on me.” It says “I’ll be there if nothing else better comes along.” It says, “I’m not reliable.” How many of us really want to say that to Jesus? Now I’m tempted to start making excuses for you. There are reasons why your actions do not reflect devotion. Health issues, weather (too hot, too cold, too windy, too wet). Sporting activities, family outings, school commitments. Transportation problems, fatigue, employment. Will you use those excuses in front of Jesus when you stand before Him? My challenge to you is to increase your devotion to Jesus. Don’t minimize what you are devoting to Him. Intensify and be consumed by your devotion to Jesus. Find fresh ways, even new ways, of expressing our Community of Faith. I am committing to work with our Church Board in this very area this year. Together we are going to start identifying focus areas of community life. We are going to establish our priorities in being devoted to Jesus. It will undoubtedly result in God doing even more new things. You will hear about those priorities as they are established. Next year our devotion to Jesus will be evaluated on the basis of those ministry focuses. Next year we will have ways by which to measure the community factor. We must never rely on statistics alone by which to measure health. So treat the statistical information on page five for what it is. It is information. We may or may not like what we see. But let’s never jump to the conclusion that God is not at work. If anything, may they challenge you to deepen your devotion to Jesus and your church family. Thank you for the privilege of serving you for yet another year. Thank you for the wonderful Pastor-appreciation service of last October. I still see it vividly in my mind’s eye. As the service progressed I felt more and more unworthy to be your Pastor. And at the same time I felt more and more confident of God’s work through us. I thank God especially for Dorothy. Did you know that the name Dorothy means “Gift of God”? She is God’s gift to all of us. For everything I do she is doing 10 times as much behind the scenes. I am her debtor. She sometimes reminds me of that. And yet she always manages to erase the debt. We were thrilled to welcome another member into our family last October. I thought I would bless you with a fairly recent picture of Bronwynn. We had an even greater thrill this spring. This thrill shows how essential it is that we be A Community Devoted to Jesus. It shows what happens when we are Devoted to Jesus. Julia shared with us that she rededicated her life to the Lord. It was a joy to be a part of that journey through phone conversations. But the biggest factor, by far, was the presence of a Community Devoted to Jesus. It would not have happened without people who loved Jesus. Julia was lavishly showered with Jesus’ love. The good pastor and people of Cochrane Alliance Church were God’s answer to our many years of prayer. Dorothy and I will be forever grateful to that Community Devoted to Jesus. Whose prayers might we be – might you be the answer to? Just in case you have forgotten already –
We dare not be anything less than:
A COMMUNITY DEVOTED TO JESUS Five Year Statistical Report
To the glory of God
Respectfully Submitted
Pastor Glenn Reeder |
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