This week we’re talking about “The Tsunami Effect” and waves of evangelism. We’ll center on Acts 10 if you want to be a teacher’s pet and read ahead. Frankly, I love talking about people giving their lives back to God. I’ve witnessed great miracles in my lifetime – people healed of various sicknesses and diseases, the miracles of providence when someone is in the right place at the right time and a person’s life is saved, and things of that nature. But to me, the biggest miracle of all is when a person dials into the reality that God is God and they give their lives to Him. There’s just way too much that competes with Him in this world. That miracle is initiated with God’s Holy Spirit. We’ve been in this seismic church series for a little while now and frankly – we’re at the halfway point and I wish it were a 28 week series so we could cover every chapter of Acts. I do want to thank you all for all the great encouragement.
I want to keep you, as a body, informed - to the best of my ability – of some of what all is going on. First off, let me encourage you to keep in prayer the direction we are heading as we explore a second ministry site. Simultaneously we will continue to aggressively go after people who are dechurched or not/never been connected to God. We’ll need to address ongoing facility opportunities at our current location continually keeping it in alignment with community standards and even going beyond community standards. Frankly, I believe God deserves to be represented by the very best. Somewhere along the line, some people in the world of the church have bought into the concept that God takes that which is substandard and somehow sanctifies that. One of the churches in which I served people constantly wanted to give the church all of their old furniture, curtains, toys for the nursery (are Barbies supposed to have heads?) and yes, even carpet that had been ripped out of their homes. Elton Trueblood, (one of the greats of the faith) said, “Holy shoddy is still shoddy.” I’m glad Forum strives to upgrade, to represent the God of the universe with the best that we can, and that we strive to pursue excellence. I want us to all understand that when we say we are moving forward with a second site – that doesn’t mean that we will ever lose sight of facility improvements at the current site.
I also need to encourage all to heighten prayer connected to our children’s ministry and for Pam Tamerius and Jessie Spellman as they serve our children in great ways. I want to encourage you to pray for our life groups, all of our men’s and women’s groups, the youth ministry, the worship/arts ministry, and the preaching and teaching elements of this ministry.
God is doing incredible things here and I would encourage all of you to elevate your prayer lives and tune into God’s wavelength. I do want to draw your attention to the people who have joined our church here lately: Eric & Michelle Jones, A.J. Plasse, Erin Ross, Jared & Carrie Conklin, Erroll Keller, Allyce Truitt, and Dave & Linda Bradley.
All of our choirs are kicking off again to prepare for the Easter season. If you haven’t had a chance to participate in the past, we’d love to have you join us. The practice schedules are:
Adult choir: Feb. 3 only – 3:00 p.m. (The rest of the practices at 5:30 p.m.)
Bridge choir: 4:30 – 5:30 p.m.
Children’s choir: 4:30 – 5:30 p.m. (Feb. 10th only 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.)
Preschool choir: 4:30 – 5:30 p.m.
It’s a great season of ministry at Forum and I’m thrilled by both the forward thinking and the embracing of opportunity and challenge that I sense among our body. I truly look forward to connecting with God with you this Sunday.
Scott
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