Reflecting on Vision Sunday

By -
Whew! Vision Sunday has come and gone, but I hope it's not behind us. The conversations are only beginning. A large portion of work is ahead of us. But we have a great start. Who could ask for a better place to begin? The College Church is a place of healing and blessing to so many people. Good people here are committed to the Lord and to one another. They have paid the price to get us to this place. I pray that we as a church will now be worthy recipients of the sacrifices made by those who have gone before.

This past Sunday was SUCH a blessing. So many people worked hard: arranging, organizing, baking, buying, praying, talking. I received as much or more than I gave. Thank YOU!

Our financial team is a ministry that will provide a key, skeletal framework for service and outreach as we move forward. I'm grateful to Fausto, Pam, Brett, Steve and Bill for the calming presence of their ministry. A good financial team is kind of like good officiating in a sports match: when things are moving smoothly and efficiently, you can almost forget they are there. But we should all thank the Lord for their service and for the Spirit's leadership to set up this system at this time.

Many people in the College Church gave us the privilege of peering into their hopes and dreams. God has great things in store for us. We must, however, be unafraid to dream dreams and to have visions for the future. It takes no faith to see things as they are. Eyes of faith are essential if we want to picture things as they can be. Our Fresno neighborhoods are full of needy people and unhealthy systems. We believe that the Lord has positioned us strategically to make a difference. I'm excited about the future, and I ask you to join me in looking ahead.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Galatians 4:1-7 & The Confusing Apostle Paul

By -
Image
Does Galatians 4:1-7 confuse anyone as much as it does me? After studying this for some time, I am prone to agree with the words of 2 Peter 3:16. "There are some things in [Paul's letters] hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures." I hope I'm not one of the ignorant and unstable people. But I'm in the camp of folks who can say that Paul's writings are occasionally hard to understand. Let me clarify what I'm having a hard time clarifying. I don't really think it's difficult to understand Paul's point in Gal 4:1-7. The broader context makes it clear. Paul says that the Law of Moses is inferior to the promise previously made to Abraham. Gentile Christians, he writes, are descendants of Abraham because they share the same faith in God (3:6-7) that Abraham had (Gen 15:6). They therefore don't need to obey Jewish rules and customs. That's his point. from Anthony...
Read more

Love It or List It: We Sold Our Church Building

By -
Image
On October 8, 2023, we held our last worship service in our home of 59 years. We're moving on to a temporary location while we wait for God to reveal where our more permanent home will be. It's been a journey for which there is no solid road map, but we feel blessed by what's happening. We formed a giant circle for the final song at our longtime, northeast Fresno home. In late January, our elders announced a shock decision. We would be selling our church building and moving on. Among the elders, it was an uncontentious and unambiguous decision. They 100% believed it was in the church's best interest to put our property on the market and find a new home. Many congregations have hard choices to make about aging properties that are oversized for today's churches. Selling seemed the most desirable option to our board in our circumstances. I wrote about that decision back in January. You can read about it here . I had an inside seat to their decision-making process. As a...
Read more

In Memoriam of Larry Locke, My Father

By -
Image
My dad Larry Locke took his final breath this afternoon. He was in the comfort of his own home in Lebanon, Tennessee. It was as beautiful a spring day as Middle Tennessee can provide. Lovely breeze. Chirping birds. Blooming flowers. But Dad had been unable for weeks to notice the glory of God's created world. He was ready to go and be with the Lord forever. Over the last 2+ years, Larry had struggled with dementia and previously undiagnosed depression. A lifelong runner, he had never spent a night in the hospital prior to this sickness. The loss of his vitality was a blow to all who knew and loved him. While his first hospitalization returned him to a level close to his old self, subsequent declines and hospital stays left him a shadow of the man we knew. His time for this life would number 76 years. Larry Locke was born in 1942 in Shelbyville, Tennessee. His father, W. H. Locke, owned a small diner. His mother, Pansy Worley Locke, had done office work but as a mother was mos...
Read more