Endings

As a church we voted to move and to change our church name.  We voted unanimously.  We voted because we want to be salt and light and provide ourselves with better opportunities to do that.  We'll be in a better location to reach Indians, we'll be in a better sized worship facility, we'll be in a more visible location. We'll be meeting on Sunday mornings, which makes sense for believers and is a bit easier on families with kids.  We have made all these choices in an effort to take a step forward as a church.


Shajan John our retreat speaker this year, talked about how to step forward you have to leave the ground you are on.  This is often the most difficult part. And in many ways, I'm sad about leaving the relationships and opportunities in Westchester behind. My eyes are opened anew to the opportunities here as I see chances to engage Gabe's kindergarten class and soccer team. We have neighbors who have been friends for the past couple of years. All of these things as well as the relationships with the people of Grace make this step forward difficult.  But, often it is the difficult things that are best.  There are still more difficult steps for us to take, things we need to change, ways we need to grow as a church.  This step is not the endpoint of the journey.  Only the very first step.  


Please pray for us. 

Utmost

Most of the church today doesn't really take Jesus lifestyle seriously.  We put a lot of pop psychology in there to make the calls to self sacrifice and eternally giving to others in there to make it palatable and sensible.  


I can do that pretty easily as well.  


Oswald Chambers devotional spells out that we need to give, trust follow Jesus at all times.  This faith is impossible without Christ.  Thank God he came to save us from ourselves.

Beginnings

My kids Gabe and Simone just started school.  I just started coaching Gabe's soccer team and our church is going to be starting to minister in a new setting.  It's got me thinking about new beginnings and how just starting something new opens up tons of new opportunities.  I know new things can be tough to take on.  It's a lot easier and safer to do the same old same old, but sometimes the same old gets boring stagnant and in need of change.  

So we take on these new challenges with prayer, because new beginnings have a lot of risk to them. Fortunately we have a God who can help since was around in the (very) beginning.