Build Your House for the Lord

Dear Friends,

            “I’m ready to see some dirt piles on the church yard,” I exclaimed to my wife recently “and a nice big hole in the ground to go along with it!”

            Of course I was referring to the much anticipated beginning of our Legacy Building project.

            I also know that behind the scenes of beginning the first stages of this project was a mountain load of paperwork, loan provisions and engeneering templates that needed to be in order before the dirt work could begin.

            I’m also anticipating that in the very near future the grean light will be given for the go ahead for this much anticipated first step.

            God does teach patience!

            In the meantime, I have reflected on the tremendous effort of our volunteers that keep the ministries and programs of this church going.

            It indeed is a team effort!

            If you come around 1^st Reformed on a Wednesday night you will find the church humming from 3:30 p.m. until 9:30 p.m.  There is barely a space in the church that doesn’t have activity in it.  In fact, we are out of room.  We have two youth classes meeting in homes and an adult elective class meeting in another home. 

            The STARS after school program involves 31 children.  Add to this choir, praise band and team practice, misc. meetings and such and you have a church crackling with energy!

            Back to the dirt pile and volunteers.

            God blesses those who use their gifts for him.  Thank you to all who teach Sunday School, lead and give of themselves in any way to the building up of the body of Christ.  I would miss many people if I tried to describe all the tasks and duties that are done by everyone.  On behalf of the church, I want you to know you are appreciated.

            The anticipated dirt pile I refer to reminds me of how we will be using our added facilities next year on.  Diana, our Youth and Education Director, and I cannot wait to see what has been envisioned to be used in expanding our current ministries and the space in which to do things better.

            May we build our house for the Lord and may we build to wear it out for Him!

            It is great to be on God’s team as a servant worker for the Lord of the harvest! 

            Stay tuned for a dirt report!!

NOTE:  Since the writing of this article, the digging has begun as of September 23.  Praise God from whom all Blessings flow!

In Christ,

Pastor Wayne

Keeping Your Eyes on Christ

September 1, 2012

Dear Friends,

            This past week I spent several days gathering documents to complete our church’s loan application for the Legacy Project.

            One of the documents that I was looking for was the By Laws of the church.  After an afternoon of searching countless minute books and records, I found out that back in 1937, our church’s Articles of Incorporation and By Laws were merged as one document.

            If I have bored you with this paper search, bear with me for just a little longer in my transition.

            One fact as I read countless years of consistory notes that covered decades of church existence is that periodically the question was asked “What is our mission as a church?”

            As I returned these historical minutes back to the vault, that question echoed in my mind.

            My mission as your pastor is to clearly and passionately remind us at First Reformed of our mission as a church.

            If I don’t, I have failed first and foremost in helping define and develop our vision and our reason to exist.

            What is our mission?  Look no further than our mission statement.  “Impacting Lives for Christ.”

            I know there are many theological variances that can bring this statement into further depth but in a nutshell, we exist to “Impact people for Christ.”

            We do this first by being committed to our creator God and responding to His love.

            We do this by living lives for Christ.  Being the hands and feet of Jesus!

            Digging into all those minutes reminded me of the ways we have done mission in the past.  Thus, for present and future generations of this church, we have to be clear and ever diligent as we live our mission statement.

            As we do so it becomes clear that ministry is a marathon.  It’s not how you start that matters but how you end!

            Let’s keep our eyes on Christ!  Impacting Lives for Christ!

           

God is good!

Pastor Wayne Sneller