As I write this, we are making the final plans to celebrate our First Anniversary Service as a new church. It’s hard to believe a year has gone by. One thing is very clear, we have so much to be grateful to God for. His goodness and faithfulness toward us has been immeasurable. This Sunday, we will take time to reflect upon and rejoice in that truth. (www.thecitc.com/downloads/ann-flyer.pdf) Over the past year, I have learned too many lessons to count, but one lesson I am learning right now has to do with keeping a vibrant walk with God in the midst of the busyness and pressures of ministry.
You would think that pastors would not struggle with this. After all, we do is church stuff, right? You would think we’d stay spiritually keen automatically. But, oh let me tell you, that’s not the way it works. I am finding that the harder your work and the more busy you become doing the work of ministry, you have the very dangerous potential to lose touch with the One for whom it’s all for. Lately, I have been convicted that I need to be very cautious not to let the mile long to-do list get in the way of my pursuit of intimacy with Christ.
Today, I was able to carve out some time to go out to a park on the edge of the city and just sit and pray and commune with God. To be honest, I have not done this enough lately. The time spent there with God was so sweet and I was so quickly reminded that we are meant to enjoy fellowship with Him. It was so refreshing and healing to just sit in His presence. I was reminded of the Scripture that says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” I came to a more full understanding of this verse this morning. You see, when we are not still, there is simply no way to fully connect with the enormous reality that He is God.
When we are in motion in our daily lives at a speed of 90 miles an hour (ok, 75), we do not have the capacity to fully recognize His greatness. Too many things are pulling at our minds, hearts, eyes, ears, hands, and feet. This is why it is so imperative that we take time to go someplace where we leave everyone and everything behind and just sit and be with God. If you, like me, haven’t been doing enough of this lately, make some time ASAP to be still in God’s presence.
The bit of CitC news I want to share this month is about a recent outreach event we just conducted. On Sat., the 26th, we held another “Community Cook-Out” at a nearby apartment complex. We hosted a team from Pineywoods Baptist Camp who came down to help us cook a ton of burgers and hotdogs. Once again, the turn- out was great, and we were all reminded that we cannot sit around at church waiting on people to show up, we must go to where they live and establish a relationship. At this particular event, I believe that lots of relationships were established. I cannot describe for you the satisfaction at these outreach events when I sit back and watch our church members sitting down and sharing a meal with people they’ve never met before and inviting them to visit our church. As I observed this again this month, it was such a beautiful sight to see our core team connecting with people from all over the world and making them feel welcome and befriended.
As we move into year two, we will keep as a high priority the quest of finding ways to get out into the neighborhood and share the love of Jesus.
Top Three Praises:
· A recent surge in first time visitors.
· Our new Community Groups are doing great.
· New open doors in the med center community.
Top Three Prayer Requests:
· More financial partners.
· The search for bigger (but still affordable) meeting space.
· The success of our new follow-up process.
