Unplanned Blessings

January 16, 2019

Once in awhile I find myself in the middle of a situation I didn’t plan and can’t control. Usually when we think of such circumstances in the abstract, good scenarios don’t generally come to mind, but today brought a confluence of circumstances that I can only believe is the work of the Holy Spirit, who has his own timing on things that doesn’t always correspond to our own.

Last week in our church board meeting I asked as to whether or not we wanted to do another outreach in the park this summer. During last summer’s centennial celebration, for the first time in a year, I heard people talking about “next year...” They were moving beyond survival mode. The board agreed that we not only want to do it, but we want to invite other churches to join us and make it a united Christian witness to the community. Great idea!

This morning in our pastor’s prayer time, we talked about how we could work together on this. Pastor Jeff mentioned that pastor Erika (who wasn’t able to be with us this morning) had wanted to do a joint prayer and worship service sometime soon, and added that he wasn’t interested in just serving hot dogs and play games if there were no long term community involvement. So we decided that the prayer meeting would be specifically geared towards reaching our community together, and that the big event in the park would simply be the springboard to weekly meetings in the park where we connect with young people, building bridges that we hope will lead them to Christ. “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! (Psalm 133:1). “All of us are smarter than any of us.” I don’t know where that last quote comes from, but both these quotes were fulfilled today.

Our prayer time concluded, I got busy with the day’s work. Our financial secretary gave me some numbers I needed for a decision we need to make which will provide for real pastoral presence in the community. God is orchestrating things that a year ago I would never have imagined. The church is slowly growing, people are excited, and together with my brothers from another congregation, a plan is starting to come together. As I said, I didn’t plan this and I sure can’t control it, but after a years and a half of prayer and work, suddenly the pieces are starting to fall into place, and I am a very thankful man tonight.