Sunday Snipit - Easter Blessings

How a building and a congregation were resurrected

It was an unusual request. The pastor of the small store-front church that my husband and I helped to plant almost 20 years ago had been called away and would not be able to preach on Easter Sunday morning. So they asked my husband to replace him. It was unusual because, Easter being arguably the most important feast day on the church calendar, for a pastor to be absent was not a normal occurrence. But my husband felt honoured to be asked to preach.

We looked forward to the day, being among those who had been there from the beginning, those who had joined us on the journey and those who were new to the congregation. We were warmly welcomed, lots of hugs and bright-eyed smiles.

My favourite pastor poured his heart into the message. (you can hear it here - the sermon begins at about the 36:50 mark).

And it was well received.

As I sat with most of my family near the front of the sanctuary, memories flooded through my mind:

The day we and about six others held our very first service in an old and soon to be condemned seniors’ centre. Only one family attended but the worship leader was enthusiastic, and the preacher didn’t hold back his passion for the Word of God.

The move to the more modern community centre where we were allowed to set up chairs but not to put out any permanent signage. After five years of meeting every Sunday many in the community did not know we existed. So my husband devised an apple pie outreach. The local grocery store agreed to be the distributor and we flooded the town with door hangers that included a coupon for a free apple pie and a fridge magnet with our logo on it. When only half of the pies were picked up my husband and our associate loaded the rest into a car and drove around town giving them away. A woman in a local bar burst into tears when they handed her the pie. A mechanic in a local garage dropped his jaw in amazement and local business people laughed but said thanks.

The day we walked by ‘The Loonie Bin’ that had been for sale for some time, and decided to pop in to talk to the owner. Realizing the building was far bigger than it looked, the board decided to make an offer and purchased the dollar store. It became apparent that the Lord had populated our congregation with skilled workers – carpenters, electricians, dry-wallers – exactly what was needed to complete the renovations. The first step? Take down the Loonie Bin sign! 😊

And then the memories of those who had walked through the doors of that store-front church over the years – some in desperate need of help; others just curious but, finding something of value there, kept coming back; some who had been hurt in other churches and just needed a place to rest in the Lord; some who wanted their kids to be part of our kids programs; some who knew nothing at all about Jesus but responded to a warm welcome and the regular potluck lunches. And there was that refugee family, sponsored by the congregation. Many became members not only of the church, but of the family of God.

I smiled through the sermon which was all about resurrection – God’s intention and over-arching plan, and our resulting benefits from it. Knowing God had given us a part in that miraculous plan was profoundly humbling.

Saying our good-byes after having lunch with many of those friends, I couldn’t hold the tears back. What a blessing, just to be among them. What a God, who loves us enough to allow us so many good years of service.

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