One Pastor's Perspective

It’s 2010.  Ebenezer has yet ANOTHER Fall Festival under her belt.  No big deal, right???

When I think about what it takes to make a fall festival happen, there are so many people to thank that I wouldn’t DARE do it on here.  Our Family Enrichment team takes the lead on this, but there are so many groups involved that it boggles the mind!  Sunday School classes and ministries come together to staff the different games and events!  The church staff works hard to fill in the gaps and glue it all together!  Hundreds of church members donate candy for the entire event and specific baked goodies for the general store AND for some of the indoor events.

All things considered, the Fall Festival at Ebenezer is a snap shot of the church working together to make something really big WORK!!  And, orchestrating the entire thing …. GOD!!  And we thank Him for every good thing that will come out of this night of hard work … the largest one-night outreach event we do!

The sermon writing process for me is … well … different.  It’s hard to define.  I seek God and He leads me in different ways, almost every week.  This Sunday I am preaching a sermon about how our judging is different from God’s. And, as always when I preach about judging, I am now praying we will ALL see this as a chance for God to guide us.  Judging is a difficult topic for any pastor, especially when there might be some out there thinking a sermon is being “aimed” at them.  Let me tell you the unique way this sermon came to be:

Ten days ago I was actually working on LAST Sunday’s sermon and preparing for Wednesday night’s prayer meeting, and I suddenly KNEW exactly what I would be preaching this Sunday.  No events leading to it or anything, it was one of those times of God giving me His plan … His SPECIFIC plan for this coming Sunday.  I emailed the info on this Sermon to Mary and Ed at that moment, and it surprised them so they asked if I’d changed my mind for this past Sunday … No, this is for next week!!

I love it when God does that!!  So I ask you to pray with me as we excitedly await what God will do this week at Ebenezer!!!

When I look over all that God is doing at Ebenezer, I am just TOTALLY THANKFUL for the ministerial staff at our church.  Ed, Pam, Justin, and Andi work VERY HARD every week.  Some of it is out in the open.  Some of it is completely behind the scenes.  I wish all of you could see what I see!!  This week began with an awesome staff retreat to talk about vision … since that meeting, we’ve had two months’ worth of trouble.  But they’re THE BEST!!  HANDS DOWN!

Yesterday, the ministers of Ebenezer did something we don’t often do … We took some time to sit down and just talk about vision and what we see God doing around each of us.  It was a really good time and I think brought encouragement to all of us.

And we would need it.  We’d originally planned to go out of town for a couple of days, but the sad events of this weekend were reason enough to change those plans.  Ironically, since that great time there have been several mine fields.  And I really don’t know what to say about them …

And that, my friends, is life … And the one thing I hold tight to is the fact that Jesus Christ died for us.  I try every day to live for Him and that is really all I CAN do. Yes, I make mistakes as we all do.  And one day we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ and answer for our OWN lives.