It's Holy Week, and as I sit here I'm losing weight thinking about how many services I have chosen to conduct. Palm Sunday is past, but Maundy Thursday Communion, Good Friday, Easter Sunrise, and two Easter services at two different churches are still on the horizon, let's also throw in an Egg Hunt on Saturday to really get the anxiety going.In the midst of all this wonderful activity that I love to do and have been called to, I almost forgot that this is our Tenth Easter worship at one of the churches I serve - The Harbour! It was April 1999 that we had our first Public Worship with a grand total of 50 or so people (I was expecting a minimum of 100 that day and hoped for 150!).
The Sunday before last we had 150 in attendance!
This also made me reminisce about the past. I went back and looked at pictures of our humble beginnings. The two on this post reminded me of days when we didn't have a paved parking lot and we needed to build a retaining wall - we were so proud of that accomplishment. The other picture reminded me of days gone by when we did cafe worship. The sanctuary was filled with tables and chairs. This particular pic was of a band night held long ago but shows what the Sanctuary looked like.
Boy have things changed - mainly people's lives. This place has seen a ton of Baptisms - many were adult Baptisms! We now have a vibrant Children's Church, Jr. High Youth, and Sr. High Youth program, Adult Bible Studies, College and Career program, and a staffed Nursery program. Oh, yeah, we now also have a paved parking lot! We're wireless throughout the church. We have multiple screens for Worship. We've come a long ways!
Next week we will be having a really, really, big announcement. We will be presenting our Proposed New Facility plans for our new Sanctuary. It will be a very nice structure, very practical, and I pray that everyone likes it. I realize that may be dreaming a bit, but one can hope. Rarely does everyone agree on everything 100% in church matters. But that keeps everything in check - it's a good thing.
While reminiscing about the past is usually fun in these situations, God is really interested in our future - at least that's my belief. That's the way He has always operated. So I hope that we will move at light speed to create a new tool - a worship facility - to help assist God in changing lives - a place where the future is important.
Which reminds me, I need to get back to creating Holy Week services, that hopefully people will attend!
