A Vision for Building Children’s Ministry –Pt 1 of 4

 In the next several posts you will read the narrative of how Osceola Grace leadership has arrived at this point right now in the building program.   It is going to take a few posts so please be patient and read these thoroughly over the next few days and you will be amazed at the way that God has doubly blessed Osceola Grace! 

Almost exactly one year ago, the Lord laid it on Pastor Greg’s heart to share with you all as a church that our next step in 2015 would be the hiring of a Family and Children’s Pastor to begin the process of rebuilding the solid foundation of Children’s ministry for which Osceola Grace Church has been known for so many years.  It was not as though what was happening was bad or ineffective, the leadership simply felt that the best way to grow this entire ministry was to focus from the youngest to the oldest.  

Therefore, our focus was going to begin with ministries from cradle to the upper elementary ages.   If you recall, Pastor Greg’s challenge was to see what could be done to increase the weekly giving in order to hire that Pastor sometime in 2015. 

Within two weeks a couple from the church contacted Pastor Greg to go out to dinner together. This dinner proved to be a turning point on the timeline and a reassurance of the current direction.   As talk surrounded the vision that was shared previously, this couple shared what God had laid upon their heart. 

When Pastor Greg had shared the vision, it confirmed to them something that they had already been thinking.  As a result, this dinner was to share that they were donating almost $2 million for a number of things! 

• The bulk of the gift was to go toward building a new Children’s Wing for the next generation of ministry and toward a Commons Area for the body of believers to gather in since the current lobby space is more of a large hallway than a gathering area. 
• Part of the gift was directed toward the General Fund and a couple of other areas
• Another part of that gift went toward the salary and benefit package for the very pastor toward which vision had been set! (ENOUGH TO COVER 3 YEARS!)

At the start of December 2014, the announcement was made about this gift and the process was set in motion to do two things:

1. Search for and hire an active and successful Family and Children’s Pastor (a committee was formed to accomplish this)
2. Create and empower a Building team to guide through this monumental task

Both teams began their work early in 2015 and on October 25, Pastor John Contreras joined the church staff and began his ministry here as our new Family Pastor!   Isn’t it exciting to see him at work and building relationships already?  As the Building Team began rolling along they were very deliberate in their process in order to try to avoid many of the common mistakes that churches make in building projects!  The next post will have more about the process they went through!

Stay tuned…

Communion - Why We Do It!

Job 19:25-27 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!

There is no HOPE that is greater than to recognize and acknowledge that the One in whom we place all of our hope is the One who paid for our sins, overcame death and is now actively involved in our lives while waiting for that day when we join Him in heaven.  Communion is a chance to REMEMBER that and to REFLECT upon that TRUTH!   This service is truly a celebration! 

Each of our Communion services includes three aspects of celebration.  We celebrate the past ministry of Christ through the bread and the cup, the present ministry of Christ by doing foot washing and the future ministry of Jesus Christ around a meal together.  Here are explanation of each aspect.  

The Love Feast (Matthew 26:17-30)

We will begin with a meal which represents the future ministry of Christ to the believer.  This simple meal represents the Marriage Supper of the Lamb that will take place when Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, redeems us and takes us to heaven to be with Him.  This is time where the church – known in Scripture as the BRIDE OF CHRIST – is brought together with the Groom – Jesus Christ – and we have a Marriage Feast together.  Ours is a simple meal but we have a great time around the table talking about what we think Heaven will be like!  You can read more about this in Revelation 19.

 Foot Washing (John 13:1-20)

Next we celebrate the present ministry of Jesus Christ in our lives as believers.  This present ministry involves the ongoing process of being clean before God.  We have a time during the service to spend time quietly confessing sin and experiencing that daily forgiveness with God.  This is a time of individual prayer to ask God to forgive us of any sin that may be in our lives at this time.  We then dismiss for the men go to one area and the women meet in the Joy Fellowship Room.  At this time we wash each other’s feet.  It is not a scrub down washing or power washing, it is simply a symbolic splashing of a little water over each other’s feet and then drying them off.  We have a good time singing and sharing together as we do this.  This practice comes straight out of John 13 where Jesus did it as an example for us to follow regularly each time we share in communion.

The Bread and Cup (Matthew 26:26-28)

The final part of our service is when we share in the Bread and the Cup – This is a celebration of the past ministry of Christ and represents His great sacrifice for our sins and the payment that was made so that we could experience eternity in heaven with Him if we just acknowledge Jesus as the Lord and Savior of our lives.  

We enjoy doing this together as a family of believers a Osceola Grace and would invite you, as a follower of Jesus Christ, to join us this Sunday, November 22 right after our worship service.   Our kids can join us for the meal and then will be dismissed to childcare during the foot washing and bread and cup portions of the service.    

Expecting the Best Requires Reflection

In our current series "Expect the Best" we looked at the challenge behind these verses yesterday:

Haggai 1:5-6 
⁵ Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways.
⁶ You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it."

In the little book of Haggai in the Old Testament of the Bible, God says five times "Give careful thought to your ways." In this first mention of the phrase above, God wants us to think about why we never seem to have enough and we never seem to get ahead.  The people in this account seem to work really hard and yet are barely staying afloat.  

Do you ever feel that way?

Later in the passage, the Lord tells them that if they chose to put God FIRST in their lives that He would meet their needs.  This is something that we all struggle with, myself included, because there is always something pulling our attention away - sometimes really good things and sometimes really bad things  -  We seem to be well aware of the "bad" things that do this but even the good things can keep us from moving forward in our journey with God. 

God want us to all choose the best and Expect the Best from Him as we intentionally decide to give Him our best. 

Join us on Sunday at 10:30 at 58343 S. Apple Road, Osceola to learn more about how we can live these truths out together!

Expecting the Best!
Pastor Greg