“Behold I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up. Do you not perceive it?” These were the words of God proclaimed to the prophet Isaiah. I am convinced that God is at work in even our most difficult circumstances. In fact, I think God does more than simply help us survive the hard times. I believe God brings good from bad, blessing from curse, opportunity from setback.
This weekend we will return to indoor, in-person worship. If you haven't heard about it, you can see all the details at www.rock-church.org/live. At that page you will see we are offering two types of services (high precaution and moderate precaution) and that we are beginning to roll out Nextgen children's ministry and nursery. You will also see that we all need to register for worship in order to maintain safe distancing. The link to register is on that page. On the surface, all this precaution, small gatherings and social distancing doesn't sound great. But what if God is doing a new thing? What if God is using this difficult season to do something new in his church?
CR is back in-person. Join us Tuesday nights beginning at 6:30 pm at our Plaistow Campus!
I can almost hear God's words to Isaiah ringing out again in our generation. “I am doing a new thing. Do you not perceive it?” What if this time away from church as we've known it could be an opportunity for us to truly reflect on our faith and recommit ourselves to serving Christ with our whole heart? What if the smaller gatherings are meant to be a way for us to get to know one another in the body of Christ at a deeper level? What if this is meant to help us experience community in a deeper way than we ever have in the past? What if all of this shake up is meant to bring us back to a closer representation of the early church that met in small groups with great passion and conviction of faith?
I've been through some things in my life that I never would have chosen. But I have experienced the presence of God in the midst of those times in a way that brought me closer to Him. God doesn't put us through hard times. But he can certainly use them to bring about good, to strengthen us, to build our faith and sometimes even to bring about a new beginning.
I feel like God is preparing us for a new beginning. A fresh start. An opportunity to see and experience our faith through fresh eyes. I fear that sometimes we take the things of our faith for granted. Is it possible that God is using this time to bring us closer to him and deeper with Christ?
I want to take a moment to remind everyone that this Saturday is our ALIVE women's ministry retreat. This is always an awesome event, and we are doing it live and in person. You can see all the details at this link.
I look forward to us all being together this weekend either on the live stream, or at one of our live in-person services. We will be starting a new series entitled “GRACE(full)~Living a grace filled life.” I promise you will not want to miss even a single week.
God bless,
Pastor Steve