Today I began a two year journey on a road to recovery with the Neighbors Grove Wesleyan Church. The church had two reasons to be filled with energy this morning. Not only was it their new pastor’s first Sunday, it was also the closing program for Vacation Bible School. Due to these two factors attendance was around 160 instead of their current average between 100 and 110.
Even knowing that we had guests present I felt that I needed to begin the sermon with a reminder of the bad news / good news story. The bad news is that NGWC is not a healthy church. But the good news is that most, if not all of us, are willing to admit it and want to do something about it. This is what sets NGWC apart from most other sick churches that do not want to admit that they have problems or aren’t willing to do anything about the problems they know they have.
I discovered after the service that there were first time guests present that were not associated with the VBS program. I made a point to invite them to join us on this two year recovery journey. These guests were the Dr. Marcus Gentry family. Marcus is the son of Rev. and Mrs. Warren Gentry who pastured immediately before me at the Rocky Mount, NC church in the mid80’s. If God does lead them to join us I feel certain that they will be a great asset to NGWC.
I closed the sermon this morning with the announcement that our first step on the journey to recovery was a call to congregational prayer together. Next Sunday we will join at the Lord’s Table to pray and commune as a community of faith. During the month of August we will be forming Share and Prayer Triplets that will meet together at least 5 times during the 50 days between August 31st and October 19th. The congregation will be encouraged to form triplets with others that are not that familiar with already and to pray for one another and their church.
The proverb goes something like – a journey of 1,000 miles begins with the first step. We took that first step today with what I believe to be God’s smile of approval and favor.
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