Memorial Monday Reflections...amongst the tears


This is a picture of the sun going down.  It is saying goodbye for a time.  Yesterday was the last Sunday of service to the congregation I have served for the last almost 5 years.  I started when an approval vote was taken in August of 2014 and I will send out a final email on Wednesday of this week, May 29, 2019.  Yesterday was a goodbye and there were many tears.  But amongst the tears...there were some really great things that made my yesterday a phenomenal day.  Let me give you 3.

 1.  There was a high emphasis on evangelism/discipleship.

 The focus of the passage in Luke chapter 15 makes you ask the question, "Which son are you?"  We are like both of them in that we all are lost and need to be found by the Father.  Our lives tend to be described by one or the other like riotous or religious or a running away or a keeping with the routine.  But the runner's story ends with a celebration and we don't have the end of the story for the one keeping the routine.  
"Which son are you?"  "Has a celebration happened in heaven because you have been found by the Father?" "Will you respond to the Father's coming to you with His grace and love?"

These were obvious questions to ask at the end of the sermon.  It was the HUGE POINT!  The exclamation point was the baptism of one who came home to Jesus.  You could see evangelism before you and the power of the discipleship of the church family.  This one was not coming to the baptismal tank alone.  In the vein of evangelism, he had invited his whole family to the church that has been discipling him.  In the vein of discipleship, the church started to love them just like they had loved the one being baptized.

In this regard, it was a great Sunday but may we pray for many more that end the same way.

2.  Many people were involved in the worship of our great God.

We had 2 up in the sound booth setting the levels and flipping the slides and 1 running the Facebook live feed.  We had 4 ushers taking up our giving to our great God.  We had 2 greeters with smiles on their faces that you were with us this morning.  We had at least 15 in the choir singing our call to worship.  We had 3 participating in music that we listened to.  We had 8 in the worship team helping us to sing music to God.  We had at least 2 in the nursery caring for those on that end of the age spectrum.  We had 1 preacher giving us God's words of life.  This is just what was happening during the worship service and I count 38 and I have probably missed a couple!

We then move to the baptism and the reception to follow.  I will not attempt to put some numbers here but there were those who conducted the baptism.  There were those who set the tables and arranged the food.  How about those who provided the food?  Lastly, but definitely not the least, was the ever important clean up crew along with our very reliable janitor.  I am sure that our number now is well beyond the halfway point of the total attendance.  Praise the Lord for us coming to church to see what we can give rather than what we can get.

3.  The new under shepherd of Jesus was in attendance.

It was my last sermon and the "new guy" was with us.  It may have looked like he was busting into "my day."  I will tell you as I told him personally, that was not the case.  I was so thankful that he was with us.  There were two under shepherds of Jesus moving about the congregation caring for God's flock.  As one was going and one was coming, we actually got to physically work together as a team.  How great is that!

Those that I have loved will continue to be loved because I saw this under shepherd "making the rounds" and sitting down with many to have "starting conversations" that will lead to effective ministering to God's flock.  What better could I see on this day?

So amongst the tears of endearment for each other, there were some great things happening at Oglesby Union Church of Oglesby, Illinois.  It was a picture of God using what He had planned, the local church, to be His witness to the world.

May you have a great Memorial Day Monday and also be thankful for what the crosses in the photo below represent for our present lives.

Adam


A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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