We are blessed!
I have never been more confident in the future of our church! I humbly believe the direction being set by our three new bishops (Linda Adams, Keith Cowart, and Lead Bishop Matt Whitehead) and the national church, along with our conference leadership (Pam Braman) is God-inspired! We don’t know yet which of the three will be assigned to our eastern area, but it will be a privilege to serve under any of the three.
We are also blessed by our pastoral team. I want to thank both Pastor Chris for his message two weekends ago, and Pastor Bill for his message last weekend.
Pastor Chris reminded us that our calling from God is not to grow the church, but to make disciples. And one of the best indications in the life of a disciple is the presence of the Fruit of the Spirit–love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The beautiful part of God’s design is that as we are making disciples that clearly display this Fruit of the Spirit, the church will grow. And such growth we celebrate!
Pastor Bill reminded us that this is not our church but God’s church. As such, church should not be guided by our preferences, but by the heart of our God of unfailing love. And God’s heart is to make us into disciples on a mission to help Him reach the 37,000 people in a seven-mile radius of our church that have no religious affiliation.
I love church. I love the Church. I love this church. I love our church family–here at Pearce and around the world. May our God of unfailing love help us to be the church as God designed.