Don't Let God's Grace Lead to Lazy Faith
Here is the sermon text from yesterday. Sermon.
Just a few thoughts from the day.
*I had a breakfast meeting at 7am. I think it's the first time I've ever put a non-church meeting early on a Sunday morning before church like that. But I'm glad I did it. Can't give details but it was encouraging and humbling.
*Loved the energy the choir brought with the gospel song in the morning.
*Usually our evening worship is more energetic than our morning worship (it's partly a style issue, partly a time issue, and partly just a demographics issue). Occasionally evening is quieter. Last night was kind of quiet.
*We kicked off the financial "Pledge" season officially. Although if you follow what we do, you know the Stewardship focused sermons were in October. I try to separate the two so that the church isn't being bombarded about money all at once. For us it's a discipleship issue, not a fundraising issue.
*God has been really generous with us financially. A couple of months ago, I thought we might run a small deficit financially in 2010. Now I think it will be a small surplus. One day I hope to be able to tell the story of how this happened - but mums the word for now.
*It's always fun to welcome new members into the church. Today we welcomed Allyson and Chris in the morning. And we welcomed Smitha, Kent, Greg and Mary in the evening. One of my real joys in pastoring is having the opportunity to actually meet and get to know all these people and hear how God is working in their lives.
Grace and peace -
Just a few thoughts from the day.
*I had a breakfast meeting at 7am. I think it's the first time I've ever put a non-church meeting early on a Sunday morning before church like that. But I'm glad I did it. Can't give details but it was encouraging and humbling.
*Loved the energy the choir brought with the gospel song in the morning.
*Usually our evening worship is more energetic than our morning worship (it's partly a style issue, partly a time issue, and partly just a demographics issue). Occasionally evening is quieter. Last night was kind of quiet.
*We kicked off the financial "Pledge" season officially. Although if you follow what we do, you know the Stewardship focused sermons were in October. I try to separate the two so that the church isn't being bombarded about money all at once. For us it's a discipleship issue, not a fundraising issue.
*God has been really generous with us financially. A couple of months ago, I thought we might run a small deficit financially in 2010. Now I think it will be a small surplus. One day I hope to be able to tell the story of how this happened - but mums the word for now.
*It's always fun to welcome new members into the church. Today we welcomed Allyson and Chris in the morning. And we welcomed Smitha, Kent, Greg and Mary in the evening. One of my real joys in pastoring is having the opportunity to actually meet and get to know all these people and hear how God is working in their lives.
Grace and peace -
