PASTOR’S NOTES – NOVEMBER 1997
REVIVAL NOTES.
For five nights a large section of our church family gathered for worship. Each night was distinctive in our offering to our Lord. Each night persons were touched in different ways, and you would probably not get any agreement as to which night was “best.” In fact, I would bet that if we were to vote on it, each night would receive at least one vote as the favorite. If it were only one person who was touched, we could still say it was worth the time.
But that’s not all of it. And though our meetings are over for now, who are we to say that revival is over? If anything, it has begun, or is continuing. Many of the effects of our time together are not yet clear, and may extended for days, months, even longer. We continue to be challenged in new ways by the questions raised: “How do we sing the Lord’s praises? How do we say “Thank you?” How do we become passionate for Christ? How do we cast out into the deep, and step forward in pure faith? How do we finally refuse the world and choose Christ? How do we become the “real me” and become what God has always wanted us to be?
For those of you who missed some or all of the evenings, we can give you some statistics: average attendance was 60 (including both persons in the sanctuary and in the Children’s session) and offering taken each night exceeded $100. The last night’s offering, that one to Avondale Church, was $108.70. But our attendance and offerings were only a small part of the contributions that were shared.
We had a slew of contributions from within our own family. There were many that contributed without even being asked, but took the initiative and enhanced the experience for all. Our ushers faithfully took their stations, as did our nursery volunteers. We were blessed to have persons prepared to work (and play) with our children during the services. We may yet raise up a generation that will know that the church is for them too (my generation rarely got that message). We had faithful cooks and servers who offered us additional food and fellowship time after the services on Sunday and Thursday. We had a song leader when the guest congregation did not provide one. Our choir came through for us on Thursday not only in singing anthems, but as singing leaders for a singing congregation. We had the benefit of a slide projector and technician, along with 70 donated slides to help us all participate. And we had prayer warriors, from the weeks before, to the hour before each meeting, continuing to lift us up from the pews, and some who were with us even though they couldn’t be present with us physically.
For our sister families:
Ø Pickerington Trinity United Methodist Church, their worship team and their pastor, Rev. Scott Kelso;
Ø Stewart Memorial Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, their choir and their pastor, Rev. Don Young;
Ø Rev. Bill Wright and the “Patterson Sisters”;
Ø West Park United Methodist Church, their choir and their pastor, Rev. Eugene Landon
How can we say “Thank you,” except to say that in our sharing together of our gifts, many were able to catch a glimpse of the real giver, and give him the glory. Praise to our Lord Jesus.
Peace,
Kevin