Ps 133:1
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity! NKJV
When did God move in a mighty, explosive manner in the early church? On the Day of Pentecost right? Right! But have you ever thought much about how the Bible describes the members of that first Church on that day? Acts 2:1 syas they were of one accord, in other words, they were Unified! They had come together for one purpose, to pray and God moved!
When God's people come together in unity of purpose, God always moves! At Cool Springs our mission statement is simply; "Guiding people to faith and to devotion to Jesus Christ." That is what we want to be about. Fulfilling the Great Commission of Christ to the best of our ability using the gifts and talents that He has given us. And no is off the hook when it comes to taking the responsibility to fulfilliing our mission. It is our mission that Unites us!
This weekend has given us glimpses of how beautiful the Church can be when the people are unified in the mission. Saturday morning my family and I rolled out of bed at 4:00 a.m. and I do mean rolled out of bed, I only like to see one 4:00 per day and it's not followed by "a.m."! We rolled out of bed and loaded the church van full of sleepy, yet anxious teenagers and drove them to the airport in Nashville. They were following God's call to take a week of their summer vacation to travel to a country they had never been, to minister the Gospel of Jesus to a people they had never met all because they had captured the mission! To say that I am a proud pastor is an understatement.
How could God follow that up? How could He make Sunday as powerful as Saturday? As only He can do, He did! My Executive Pastor got a late night call on Saturday to preach at a community venue at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday. With a heart for the mission, he accepted, preached and 8 people responded to God's invitation.
Tonight, God put the icing on a great weekend of what He can do when His people are united in the mission. A testimony service broke out in our evening worship service. Now, I have to admit to you that I get nervous when a testimony service breaks out unplanned! You just never know what you are going to hear. But Thank God it did break out tonight. For twenty minutes one tear-filled testimony after another broke out from people, many of whom have been a part of our church family for less than a year. They each shared how God had used the people of the Church to minister God's love and grace to them. They shared how they had came to faith in Christ, left a life of addictions, fears and scars and now have a peace that passes understanding. Each of them had finally found a Spiritual Family! I once again sat as a proud pastor.
The psalmist wrote: "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity!" Ps. 133:1 Dear Lord, may we at Cool Springs, and may all your children wherever they are, always be a united people, united in your mission!
