Grace Baptist Church last Sunday began its new 2015-16 Sunday School year with 80 in attendance. This great turn out translated into 142 folks in worship. These numbers mean that our worship attendance this past Sunday morning was 78% greater than our Sunday School attendance. Its was almost twice the normal percentage difference between Sunday School and Worship. Even though we did not reach our goals of 100 in Sunday School and 160 in Worship, our church is demonstrating its commitment to reach people and enlist new folks in the work of the Lord here. We are a growing church and God is sending people to us in amazing ways to become a part of this fellowship.
One of the amazing things God did in our church this past Sunday is the way He turned our baptism service of Mike Peyton into a service where 3 were baptized as an expression of their profession of faith in Christ. God led Vickie Parker, who became a Christian back in March, to step forward in our service Sunday to join our church by way of baptism. Our church was thrilled by her testimony, eagerly accepted her decision, and baptized her into the fellowship of our church family. Our own Caroldean, already a member of our church, recognized that she had been sprinkled into the Lutheran church as a child and wanted to be baptized into our church family by immersion. The testimony of these two ladies and Mike was an amazing expression of God’s presence and mighty work in our church. I have been in ministry for 46 years and have never experienced a more exciting and Holy Spirit anointed day than last Sunday.
To top everything off, God’s people gave more than twice what our church budget requires in weekly contributions. The generosity of our people last Sunday is a real expression of God’s grace. God not only worked in the hearts of His people to come to church, he worked to give us a heart to give over and above our normal patterns. God is good and His leadership in our lives is causing us to see real miracles happen. Last Sunday morning was without doubt a demonstration of God’s miraculous touch. We are truly blessed.
I cannot end this article without saying a word about our Youth and their trip to the Celebrate Freedom Concert, as well as their viewing of the movie "War Room" last weekend. Every member of our church should have an opportunity to watch our young people worship God at an event like Celebrate Freedom. With over 30,000 people attending the concert, I did not have to worry about the welfare of our students at all. They took care of themselves, watched out for each other, obeyed every rule and made sure they let me know where they were all day long. At the movie Sunday night, they became verbal in their expressions of agreement with what was happening on screen. I heard them say “AMEN,” and “PRAISE THE LORD.” Their verbal expressions of praise in the theater at one point moved the entire audience to applaud. Our young people are awesome! Thanks Robin and thanks parents for all your help, support and leadership in our Youth Ministry.
SUNDAYS ARE GREAT AT GRACE,
Pastor Mike