CELEBRATE!

PRAISE GOD! Our January marker in the MAY 200 growth in attendance campaign has been made and surpassed. Last Sunday we recorded 156 people in worship. What does it mean to reach a milestone like this?

• It means that God is at work among us, “Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:45-47). A growing church is a glad and a praising church. The joy is not in the numbers, but in God who adds to the number of those who worship together. Clearly, God is at work among us.
• It means that the first milestone has been met which points us to our final achievement of 200 worshiping together in May. A baseball team wins its game by getting the first hit and the football team has to make the first touchdown. You can do great things for God by taking the first step and then the next and then the next. Five more steps and our benchmark of 200 will be history. The Psalmist said, “You enlarge my steps under me, and my feet have not slipped” (Psalm 18:36). God blesses those who take large steps for His glory. We are on our way one step at a time.
• It means that God is encouraging this church to attempt great things. Encouragement is a great thing these days especially when God is the encourager. God is not a “Kill-Joy.” He is not someone who throws cold water on our enthusiasm. There is a reason that the Bible calls the Holy Spirit our HELPER, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you” (John 14:26). Meeting this first milestone teaches us that the Holy Spirit is HELPING and ENCOURAGING us to continue our work for Jesus. With God’s HELP we move ever forward.

 
Reaching 150 in worship is not he only thing to celebrate. We shared together in our first scripture memory exercise as a congregation. We have read the Bible systematically before beginning in Genesis and ending in Revelation. We hear the Bible taught and proclaimed every Sunday through Bible teaching and preaching. We even sing Bible passages as a part of our Praise and Worship. This is the first time in my ministry where the whole congregation is working together to put key Bible passages to memory. Our goal is to memorize 12 passages (one per month) that that every born-again believer should know. We started with this one, “But God commends His love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 KJV). Next month’s verse will be, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12 KJV). The first passage tells us why God gave Jesus to us. He sent Jesus to die for us because of His great love for us. Next month we memorize a verse that presents Jesus as God’s only pathway to be saved.
 
This is exciting. We are reaching more people and learning more Bible at the same time. Why not CELEBRATE? We are doing what God wants us to do.