Why do we do it? Because God calls us to thrive, not simply survive!
And we are thriving!
The Preschool, a missionary enterprise of this fellowship, is thriving! Children, parents, grandparents course through this building 5 days a week, and they need room to prepare for school and learn about Jesus.
We are thriving! The Christmas Project continues to expand, touching hearts and moving to tears people in need, because of our commitment to Christ. We need space!
The Community Meal is growing, and we need to feed more than once-a- month! Many people come here for sanctuary and a hot meal and fellowship!
We thrive, as the Positive Christian Singles gather
As the Saint Paul Café’ for high school students grows,
As Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts learn in this space,
As support groups meet here in safe haven.
As the Good Shepherd ministry has been planted.
Do you realize that there are people in this building at least 6 days a week, morning and evening, totaling in the hundreds?
And that is just now! Imagine work teams staying in the Center for Life, the new Youth Room overflowing into the gym, the Christmas Play on our new stage! After-school programs developing, the Saint Paul Café’ serving evermore of the special Rigdon blend of coffee!
Imagine hearts changed, lives touched, people saved-perhaps in your own family or social network- saved from the brink because of the ministries housed and the relationships built in Christ here!
Why do we do it? We do it because there is a promise!
Why do we pour ourselves out in ministry, service to Jesus? When things are hard, when time seems short, when it appears the weight of the world is upon us? We have not the strength for such things on our own, but we persevere because there is a promise. Because there is a promise! We are called to thrive, not simply survive!
Now do not misunderstand me. Sometimes we need a break to rest- that is Biblical, normal and good! Sometimes we need to stop and check the map, to make sure we have not fallen off course! Course correction may be necessary. But after due rest and reorientation we press on! Why? Because there is a promise.
You may recall the story. Allow me to paraphrase. The people of Israel are freed from their slavery in Egypt to go to the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey, a land promised them by God. Reading about it, it all seems clear-cut. Yet, to reach the Promised Land and all that entails, requires the trust and faithfulness of the people toward the Trustworthy and Faithful God Almighty. Sounds easy- clear-cut too. However, it involves people like you and me, and, well, sometimes we want to hedge our bets, cover our assets, have things relatively easy with minimal if any hardship, disappointments, and certainly no demand for patience! If you have driven with your small family to Florida, you know that you want smooth travel and no whining. Now try that on foot or pack animals, with harassment and about 2 million people!
In the Book of Numbers, we find recounted events prior to the entrance of the people of Israel into the Promised Land. Moses sends out spies to check it out before entering with the entire nation. We pick up the story at Numbers 13:25-14:10.
Ten out of Twelve spies see a dismal situation, a daunting task, and utter disaster awaiting Israel. They want to turn around, quit, whatever! Yet two men have ‘new eyes’ with which to see the situation, as they look through the looking glass of God’s promises and provision. We are to inherit the land! God is making a way! God’s will wins!
Friends, we are in the midst of an endeavor which we believe is God-breathed. Now, we have some setbacks. The economy has been ugly and unemployment high. We seem to be stuck in a rut in many ways.
Our congregation has and is feeling the effects, and when we look at the tote board, our Center for Life commitment total seems stuck in the mud. Do you remember my story about being stuck as a little boy? I was walking with my six shooters; plastic (I mean pearl) handles at my side, ready for a shoot out to protect my family from imaginary threat. I stepped onto the dirt road, which after a heavy rain was mud, and promptly got stuck deep in the mud. I could not move! Dad! DAAAAAAD! Help! I’m stuck! I can’t move! Dad came to my rescue. He grabbed hold of me real sure, and picked me up right out of my boots. The boots stayed in the mud. But I was free!
Just as my dad did when I walked deep into the muddy road with my cowboy boots and got so stuck I could not move, God will lift his faithful ones out of the mud! We won’t be stuck anymore! The key is to cry out to God, obey Him, and trust in His promises! He will provide for what He guides!
Many people will benefit greatly from the Center for Life and Renovation Project. Most likely, you will, we all will! However, there are people whom we have yet to meet, and are yet to be born, who will too. This past summer, the Appalachian Service Project crews benefitted from a church/mission site opening their doors and floors so we could rest and renew before heading back out to work. Someone had a vision to start the Bethany Christian Mission at one point in time; who knows if they envisioned the St Paul crews resting there one day because of their commitment and the fruit of their labor? Yet they did, and we did!
I cannot tell you all of the ways God will lead us in this endeavor and into the future. All that I know is that the Holy and Sovereign God asks His people to trust and obey. He will provide. Friends, God is taking me on the most exciting trip I could ever take in life, and it includes this trip with you. God has great plans for us; He has plans to prosper us, plans for peace and not for evil, to give us a future and hope. Therefore, we pray and seek God, and He will hear us and we will find Him. He will restore us, and the blessings by which we are blessed. What a promise! God is good! We build, because we are called to thrive, not simply survive!
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Greetings Sisters and Brothers in Christ!
I have been reading Stephen Ambrose’s account of the Lewis and Clark expedition of the early 1800s, and it is a remarkable account of the tests, triumphs, and travails of perhaps the greatest American explorers to date. It is fascinating to read of the courage, inner fortitude, and physical stamina required to undertake a trip that we can make today with relative ease. As they travelled north and west across this continent, their discoveries still astound, and even today some of the country they traversed is near impenetrable. Perhaps even more astonishing is the vision of not only Lewis and Clark, but President Jefferson for what could be ‘out there’ in the unknown, and the steady course to make it known. Today, we enjoy the fruit and sacrifices of their vision, courage, and labor.
Along with the certainty of the Rock of our Salvation, Jesus, we too, walk into some unknowns. But we do so sustained by a vision that God imparts that leads us forward. Proverbs 3 tells us to “trust in the Lord with all your heart…and He will direct your path.” This long winter of weather woes and economic struggle has not been without good things happening and there has been fruit of faithfulness blossoming with St. Paul Church. The Center for Life and Renovation Project has been broken into phases, with groundbreaking for Phase 1 to begin this Spring! When this process of vision and discernment for future ministry began over 6 years ago, we did not know all the challenges that would come, but we did know that God will prevail! How exciting and necessary is this project, as St. Paul Church has not given up on Christ or this community for Him! Our Building and Finance Teams have done their homework, the Follow Up Team prudent, and by God’s blessings through you and others we are moving into this epic journey together.
Related to this is the work of the St. Paul Challenge Group, a cluster of representatives of our congregation who have been diligently studying the landscape for future ministry in this area. There are many changes afoot in our society, culture, and community, and Jesus Christ has much to say and a direction to lead us into this future. The Challenge Group has also been doing its homework, and the fruits born of this will be evidenced as we present mission and ministry strategy and focus for St. Paul Church into the future. We will have the presentation and implementation of this work beginning in about 6 months, and the results will strengthen us for the known and unknowns of the future.
It takes courage and trust in the Almighty to be a Christian today, as it always has through the centuries. When we realize the eternal destiny of souls are at stake and misery and struggle within and around us cries for relief, our Savior Jesus Christ leads us forward. We do not always know where he is leading us, yet when He is leading us all will be well. And all is well, with Him.
Receive the Blessings of Jesus today!
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