You Were Born "For A Time Like This"

For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this? -Esther 4

These words were said to Queen Esther when she had to make a life and death decision between doing what seemed safe, and doing what would save her people. Sometimes we experience moments in life when we are faced with challenging change. We need to decide to change for God, and if we don’t, life will decide for us.  We are at a point like that for our church right now. For many years we were a dynamic, growing congregation. We are still a good church, but we have lost a lot of the passion and dynamic we had. We are a good church, but God needs us to be a great church. 

This doesn’t mean we did things wrong in the past! The people, programs and designs of the past are what created our church today. However, if we continue to work on the church of yesterday, we will not be a church tomorrow. Congregations are dying all around us. We live in a post-Christian culture and a lot of churches are incapable of speaking to, and surviving in a culture like ours. Slowly we have started to become a church mostly for the church people. Our patterns, concerns, programs and structures are designed more and more for us to become like other churches: focused on what we want. Most churches like that are fading quickly before our eyes. But God has not called us to be like that. God has given us a great mission to connect people to Jesus Christ! God has given us the ability to speak in this post-Christian culture.

So we are in the midst of change…again. Some of you have been through transitions like this with me before. They aren’t easy or enjoyable. But if we keep our focus on God, and what He wants to make of our church, we will have a powerful impact on our community and the people in our lives. I am asking for all of you to pray for our church and for God to grant me and our church leaders the right vision, and to make the best decisions. If you have ideas or even criticisms, share them with me. I believe God sometimes speaks to you more clearly than to me. If you have cheers, fears or tears, I want to hear those too. I have already had all of those experiences. 

Like Esther, we have a choice. We can choose what seems like the safe and easy path, but it leads to death. God has a great future for this ministry and I earnestly believe at this time, that God is calling us to lead, not follow, so we can thrive, not perish. Together, with God, we will see God deliver our community to glory!

You were born “for a time like this,”

Pastor Tom