Reflections From Last Sunday

After five years I've learned one can never be too careful and must check and re-check things to make sure all is ready for a big event like Sunday's 3 on 3 basketball tournament. So, with that in mind, I went over and started our church van on Saturday afternoon to make sure all was well. We had run into a battery issue with the van the previous Sunday so I wanted to make sure all was well. It was. The van started right up. I had peace of mind and slept well Saturday night. All that changed Sunday morning when I was informed by another driver for the van that it wouldn't start because the key was not able to be fully inserted into the ignition. Panic set in. The clock was ticking and we were running out of time- there was much to set up outside for our worship service and basketball tournament. Thankfully, I serve in a church with servants. We loaded up in our SUVs and trailer and unloaded what we needed out of the van and the church trailer and brought it over to the school. We got everything done in time although there was stress and panic.

Having a few days to reflect from Sunday, here are some observations I'd like to share with you:

1) Our church is willing to do whatever it takes to be a bridge of God's love to all people so they may come to experience His purpose for their lives, which is repentence of sin and a personal relationship with Him. The basketball tournament on Sunday morning was one way of doing something a little out of the box to reac those who are not connected to any church. By the way, we had a smaller attendance this year for our tournament because there was less people from other churches participating because they were at their own church Sunday morning. That's a good thing. So, we had a higher percentage of those participating who were not connected to any church. Isn't that the point? Our goal isn't to see how many people from other churches we can gather for an event even if it does mean the numbers are bigger.

2) We have solid, sold out servants to Christ in our church. As mentioned in the van break down story, we had a number of people jump in and help out with that situation. We had others on Sunday morning show up and didn't know what would be asked of them but when duty called, they rolled up their sleeves and served. Without greeters, set up teams, people who picked up basketball goals, food help, face-painters, registration table workers, preschool workers, worship leaders, ushers, and sound and media crews this event would never have happened.

3) I see spiritual warfare alive in our church. We have never had as many machinery breakdowns in the life of our church like we've had this past week. Our copier went down when we were printing advertising for the tournament. Our printer went down as we were printing the labels. Milo's laptop computer crashed and our desktop computer in the office crashed as well. Oh, and did I mention the van didn't start? There are unseen spiritual forces of darkness in this world that want to see our church fail because we are coming in on enemy territory with the light of Jesus Christ. We should expect nothing less than opposition.

So, those are a few reflections from Sunday. We have this promise from Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses (a bridge of God's love) in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samarai, and to the ends of the earth." Ridgeview Church will continue to be a bridge of God's love to all people in the power of God's Spirit. Will you pray God's Spirit will open doors for you this week to be a bridge of His love to someone?

See you Sunday!

Pastor Tommy