Beloved
in the Lord, I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient
endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. (Revelation 2:19)
Please
allow me to first say that I can’t begin to tell you how thankful and overjoyed
I am for all of the effort, support and leadership that I have witnessed in our
congregation. God calls forth volunteers
to serve and you have answered that call in multitudes. Thank you so much for
your willingness to aid Bethel when needs arise; your commitment to the spread
of the Gospel and the growth of Christ’s Beloved, the Church, is apparent in
your words and deeds.
“I
press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ
Jesus.” (Phil 3:14 ESV) As we press on
toward the goal we will be in need of further volunteers. It is my goal to increase the pool of Sunday
school and Wednesday evening teachers, ushers, coffee hour volunteers, etc...
to and unprecedented number. Many hands
make light work. If, for example, we
have 24-50 Sunday school teachers then the commitment to teach will not be as
great and overwhelming to each individual; if we have over 52 coffee hour
volunteers then a family will only have to host one week a year. Please consider where the Lord might be able
to use your particular set of gifts and talents as we go forward.
July
can be a crazy month. In Holdrege we
have baseball, softball, the fair, our First Annual Bethel Faith Fun Family
Festival, vacations, Boy Scout camps, BCW Garden Tours, and other activities
too numerous to name. It is my prayer
that each of us will approach these activities with a joyful heart thanking the
Lord for the gifts of vocation and recreation all the while keeping your
relationship to the Lord and His command for evangelism foremost in your
priorities. Please consider each event
as an opportunity to reflect Christ’s love to our community as well as an
opportunity to minister to our friends and relatives with the promise of hope
in Jesus Christ and an invitation to “come and see” what we are up to at
Bethel.
The
hour has come and the time is now for us to be a beacon of light to the lost
and a Word of hope to the broken. Every
person we come into contact with in a day is an opportunity to invite someone
to church or an opportunity to start a relationship through which you can
invite them. I intend to lead by example
and humbly ask that you keep me accountable to my own teachingJ.
I
know that I know that I know that the Holy Spirit has gone ahead of us in all
of our endeavors. It is with joyful
anticipation that we look to July for the leading of the Lord within our church
and community.
May
Christ bless you and bring you peace daily through scripture and prayer,
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