Every Seat Has a Story
Our new chairs arrive this week! In fact, we will be celebrating with a ‘chair party’ on Thursday. For those of you reading this who are not in ministry, a ‘chair party’ is a weekly event in church world (sometimes 2-3 times a week) that deals with moving chairs around in preparation for events or even Sunday service. A lot of fun….ok not really.
As we near the end of our NEXT Campaign (our building project) where so many of you have prayed for, given financially and helped physically with electrical, carpentry, painting, among many other things, we pause to think of all God has in store for these new seats.
As i shared on Sunday, huge decisions were made in these previous seats for so many who have attended here.
For me, I think of some of the bigger ones:
My wife Vicki accepts Christ in one of those chairs and because of that decision, she invites her mom Cindy who brought her husband Bob. Bob went on to influence so many here including countless teens before he passed away. Cindy has served here in so many capacities, group leader, greeter, administrative, and care team.
My wife decides to sing for God. It’s one Sunday where Vicki fills out a Connection Card and checks off an interest in serving on our Worship Team. It’s her, along with the other talented vocalists and musicians, who lead the service off by drawing our attention on God through music. This ‘sets the table’ for us to clear our head and hear what God wants to tell us through the message.
I decide to enter ministry. It was in one of those seats where I decide to leave 20 years of managing 4 health clubs to enter a new career. Entering the complete unknown with a lesser income and young children was crazy! God had to make things pretty obvious to me. I felt (and still feel) unqualified. I look back and see just who God is by putting me (of all people!) into ministry and I’m so thankful!
My son and daughter say YES to Jesus It was in one of these seats where both Bennett and Sadie accepted Jesus into their hearts. It was also where they decided to go public with their faith and be baptized. It was in these seats where they ‘owned their faith’ and I am so thankful!
My children invite others It was because of my children’s decisions they made in these seats with their faith that they decide to invite their friends from a summer camp, Samantha and Marissa. They, in turn, invite their mom and boyfriend, Becky and Fabio. Samantha and Marissa, along with being here every Sunday, attend our teen environment (Living Proof) each week and continue to grow in their faith. Becky and Samantha were baptized last year (see photo below). Becky serves every week here as a greeter. Fabio is on our worship team as a drummer. God is so good!
Because of the previous generation’s generosity, my family and friends have been blessed with a church full of seats that are full of potential, full of future vital decisions and full of incredible stories. I can’t wait to hear the stories one day of all these seats we will be adding here on Thursday. Won’t you join us in being a part of this story by purchasing seats today? Your purchased seat may in fact contain one of the greatest stories yet to be told.