The Day is Here!

The Day is Here!

            What an incredible day we shared together last Sunday.  All this week, I have had countless conversations with people around our walk together and our first gathering in our new space.  Without exception, every conversation has smiles on the faces and expressions of awe.  All the images are still with me: singing together one last time at the Woodlake building; handing the keys off to Spring Run; communion; walking the 1.8 miles with a sea of people; crossing the “Jordan River” aka “Hull Street”; your spontaneous standing ovation when we began the service at Hampton Park; Pauline Smith praying; and that great picture upon our exit.

            It was just a great day and I, like most of you, am still beaming.  But wait, there’s more!

            This weekend, we are beginning our regular services at Hampton Park.  All week we have been working with new sound systems, new spaces, and new everything!  It has been a busy week, but I can tell you, it is looking very good!  In addition, Wednesday night, in lieu of our usual prayer services, we had our First Fruits folks spending the evening, walking through all the new spaces, praying for them, and more importantly, for you.

            So the spaces are ready, many people have been praying for you and for others for this weekend.  You don’t want to miss it.  I can’t wait to see you and welcome all of us to our first week of regular worship here.  God is good and I will see you there!

In Christ,

Pastor Pete

Get Ready to Walk!

Get Ready to Walk!

               It is amazing how good news travels fast!  A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting at Cosby High School with a group of seniors as we were planning out the upcoming Baccalaureate Service.  We were just having casual conversation when one of them (who doesn’t attend our church) asked me; “Aren’t you guys the ones who are doing that walk thing?”

            Today, I stopped to visit with our UPS driver in our neighborhood.  She told me that she and her family would be there to join us for the walk this weekend.  And of course, those conversations have been repeated multiple times in the last couple of weeks.  Several of our members who have since moved have said they are going to be here to join us!

            It is hard to believe that it is finally here.  For the last several weeks, we have been working out of our new Hampton Park building, and even though we have had to walk underneath ladders, and walk around carpet layers and other workers, we are just about there!  And, it is beautiful.  I am so excited to gather for the first time in our new spaces to worship and celebrate the incredible God who has brought us here after such a long journey.

            You have heard the basic information.  We will start at Woodlake at 10:00, and by 10:15, we will be walking.  Police and volunteers, and EMS will be there along the way to assist us.  You are welcome to join the walk at Cosby High School if you would like, and you can park there.  We will finish at our soccer field at Hampton Park with hot dogs and fellowship.  We will conclude the walk and worship at Hampton Park at 11:30, and after the service, we will adjourn to our new front yard and sidewalk for a photo.  You can park at Woodlake or Hampton Park and shuttles will be going back and forth. 

            But most of all, I hope and pray you will join me in this walk thanking our God who has been so good to us and who has brought us to this very good land.  See you there!

In Christ,

Pastor Pete

Running on Empty

Running on Empty

            I have to tell you, we just love our new digs!  Many of you have stopped by the new church building at Hampton Park to visit and I have loved watching the expressions on our faces as we see the sanctuary and building for the first time.  It really is breathtaking!  I have said many times this week, every morning is like Christmas!  When we get to church, there is a new sign, new sod, and multiple other new things!  It is an exciting time.

            I will tell you one challenge, however.  We have learned that here in our Hampton Park area, we have limited and struggling cell phone service.  The signal is typically very weak throughout our building.  On one hand, maybe this is a good thing.  There will not be many cell phone or text message interruptions in worship!

            But on the other hand, cell phones spend the whole day trying to find a signal.  As a result, they go through the battery power quickly.  Now, if I don’t plug in the phone at night, I wake up with that big red mark on the phone, reminding me that the phone is just about out of power.  So, I am finding myself beginning the day without much power in my phone.

            It is not hard to just plug the phone in and recharge it.  But it also dawns on me that many of us, as we get ready to leave the house in the morning, may feel like the dwindling charge on the phone.  There is a full day in front of us, and it is early in the day and I am not sure I have the power to meet the demands in front of me.

            This weekend, we are going to be looking once again at the story of Pentecost.  Sure enough, at 9:00 in the morning, power came down upon the people of the church.  They were just about out of gas.  Peter had been ready to quit, and go back to fishing.  The disciples had just replaced Judas.  But on that day, power came upon each of them from above, and suddenly, this group of very ordinary people could face a challenging day and circumstance, and do extraordinary things.  Power came and the world has never been the same since.

            If you are like me, you have many days where power is needed but the tank is on empty.  Let’s talk some more about where and how we can find this Pentecost power.  See you in worship, on this last full weekend of worship in our Woodlake Campus!

In Christ,

Pastor Pete

"And if Not..."

And if Not…

            We are now well into our “Church on Fire” series and have listening to the different images of fire throughout the Scriptures.

            This week, we will be looking at the familiar story of the three young men as they were cast into the fiery furnace.  We will be speaking of the way that this fire had a way of revealing many things.  It highlighted the faith of the three young men.  It showed the foolishness of the king and his statue of gold.  But it also revealed the miraculous presence of a living God in the middle of the furnace, the fourth man who walked with them in the fire.

            Fiery trials have a way of revealing who we are, who others are, and who God is.

            This is keenly demonstrated in a story told by the late Charles Colson in his book “The Body”.  There, he speaks of the British soldiers on the beach at Dunkirk in the early years of World War II.  Many remember the story.  The British were fighting the Germans and had been routed.  They retreated to the French beach “Dunkirk”, where they were in a seemingly hopeless situation.  Expecting imminent capture or death with the coming of German forces upon them, British soldiers broadcast a simple three word message in Morse Code across the English Channel:  “And if not…”

            Most would not recognize the phrase today, but the people of 1940 were more Biblically literate.  They knew it to be a quote from the story of the three boys as they approached the fiery furnace.  They had been sentence to die in the furnace but before they were thrown in, they spoke:

“If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O King.  (And if not), we want you to know, O King, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up…”  (Daniel 3:17-18)

            The three words were from an older translation, but they were still familiar to the population.  The soldiers at Dunkirk were going to stay faithful and true, even if they were never rescued.

            And most know the rest of the story.  The fiery trials revealed the character of those soldiers on the beach.  But it also revealed the character of the British people on the other side of the message.  The result was boats, lots of small boats that sailed across the Channel, rescued the soldiers, and brought them home.  Lots of soldiers found a fourth man in the fire but it took the fire to reveal him.

            This weekend, we are going to speak to those trials of life and how the fire has a way of revealing who we are.  If we were at the edge of the furnace, the beach of Dunkirk, or at any of our contemporary trials, could we too say, “And if not…?”  Let’s talk about this some more.  See you in worship!

Pastor Pete