"A Letter To My Church on its 70th Anniversary" by Greg for Monday, 29 August 2016This August marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of Chesterton Church of the Nazarene. Started by James Shaw, a lay person from Gary First Church of the Nazarene, Chesterton, has undergone a long and winding road over these seven decades. Seventeen years ago the church building was sold, the church was renamed, and it was reborn as Duneland Community Church.
As part of my sermon on our anniversary celebration I wrote this letter, greatly inspired by Paul's letter to the church in Philippi. May it testify to the beautiful story and the amazing people who have been part of the past 70 years in this little corner of God's kingdom.
My Dear Friends and Family at Duneland Community Church,Grace and Peace to all of you beautiful, God loving, faithful disciples, in the name of Jesus our Lord, who has saved us all by his incomparable grace.
I give thanks to God, every time I pray for you, because you just make me happy. That’s not quite right. You don’t just make me happy, you fill me with that strange mixture of wonder, joy, and disbelief, which a parent gets watching their child thrive. You are a people worthy of imitation and celebration.
In a world where we can get anything we want, anyway we want it, almost as soon as we want it, your commitment to the hard earned fruit of a long obedience in the same direction makes you unique. For 70 years, largely unnoticed by the world and even the town around you, normal, every day people have faithfully joined in with God’s work in the world. Always feeling like you were showing up the party with nothing to offer, your faithful commitment to showing up has made all the difference. Never underestimate the power of showing up, speaking the truth in love, and not obsessing with the results.
My own love for you runs deep because God asked so much of us when he called my family to come. When God asked that of us, what he really asked was for us to trust in him in ways that we hadn’t done so before. God was putting our faith to the test. You know all about that test. So many of you have paid a great price to be part of this missional outpost of God’s kingdom.
Many of you left other church homes because God called you here to be part of a new work. You came and, more importantly, you have stayed. You have stayed when there was no joy, when each moment was pain, and when it cost you a great deal. But you stayed! You continued to press on towards the goal God has given you, chasing dreams that sometimes seemed further away than when you first begun. Thanks be to God for your faithfulness! Because of your God centered stubbornness people’s lives are being transformed.
With each life that discovers the grace of God, with each child that sees the faith planted in them, with every former slave that you help rebuild their lives, with every person who receives warm hospitality in God’s name, there is a great pay off for your sacrifice. You honor the legacy of those first pioneers who heard the call of God and came to Chesterton with a dream to see God change lives. You are experiencing the fruit of seeds planted decades and decades ago. So be encouraged. Be thankful. As always, stay the course in your pursuit of God.
My prayer for you is that you will continue to discover the overwhelming, never ending, all you can eat, free refills for life, uber-abundance of God’s grace. When you spend your life swimming in a Great Lake of grace, it is so easy to live a life of mercy in this world. When you have so much love that you could never possibly run out, giving it away is the most joyous way you can possibly live. Love each other richly and deeply. Keep planting seeds of grace in the world, even if you are sure that you will never see the fruit yourself. Indeed, plant kingdom seeds that your grandchildren and their grandchildren will be able to experience.
Dream dreams so big that you can spend your whole life in pursuit of them and never hope to accomplish them. Never consider your job done. No matter who you are, how old or young, how educated, how rich or poor, how new to the faith or if you were born in the church nursery, your job is never complete. You all share equally in the call to live a life of abundant life. There is just as much love for a child to share as there is for your matriarchs that sit in the back of the church near the sound booth. What the world needs is exactly what you have to provide – the grace and mercy of God.
70 years, that is a reason to celebrate. There were so many moments in those 70 years when one of God’s children could have said no instead of yes, they could have quit instead of being faithful, they could have given in to fatigue instead of relying on God’s strength. If they had, none of us would be here today. None of us would be part of this beautiful family. The new life we are celebrating today might not have taken place. People would still be slaves. Families would still be broken. Some lives would have ended prematurely amid depression and despair. So don’t cease loving each other or loving God. Never doubt the impact of your sacrifices small and large.
You are a beautiful people. You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of world. May God’s grace ever be upon you and may you be his ambassadors of grace in the world.
Greg
Monday, August 29, 2016
Categories: Scripture and Discipleship
URL:http://wp.me/pqY3-ST
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