2/19/2025
Well, I wasn’t expecting that!
You all surprise me all the time with your love and generosity. Whether it’s Pastor’s Appreciation month in October, staff love offerings in December or any of the numerous expressions of your love throughout the year — and that’s on top of your generous giving to the missions and ministries of the church — you absolutely outdo yourselves!
And the cards, gifts and messages I got . . . several from unexpected corners . . . they all really touched my heart!
Right now, I’m sitting at my kitchen table, looking out the window at the snow and the birds. I put out extra seed, and I’m covered up in cardinals, purple finches, doves, blue jays, grackles, thrashers and at least one rufous-sided towhee (and that’s just the ones I can identify). I hung the absolutely beautiful and magical wind chimes on the door frame going from my den into the kitchen (which is still not finished), and I give them a whirl whenever I walk by.
Perfection.
I don’t remember who I told I wanted a set of wind chimes, but thank you to whoever remembered! They were a wonderful surprise. Now I’m looking forward to warm weather so I can sit outside and listen to them while I study. And the inscriptions on them . . . perfect!
Speaking of the inscription . . . any good surprise requires at least a little deception. Kim told me someone in the church wanted to know my favorite Bible verse, but wouldn’t tell me who, and I had no idea why! I had to think a bit before I answered because it’s sort of like asking a momma which is her favorite child (I asked one woman that several years ago and she replied, “my neighbor’s”).
The first verse that popped into my mind was, as you can probably guess, Mark 12:30-31, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength . . . You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
But then I thought of the theme verse for the book of Romans. If you remember, Paul wrote Romans to keep the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers united. But I think the verses that really summarize the letter are 15:5-6, where Paul prayed: “May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
That’s it. There it is. That says it all.
Especially when we put those two passages together, words from Jesus in Mark and words from Paul in Romans, we get a beautiful picture of who we are and what we’re to be about: Loving God . . . Loving Others . . . and living in harmony with one another while we do it.
I think y’all do a marvelous job at all that. Sometimes the harmony part threatens to get a little out of tune because we have a lot of really strong personalities, but from my vantage point as pastor I can say that I’m blessed to serve in a congregation that loves God, loves others, and loves one another.
Someone actually asked me if it bothered me in any way to be pastoring a small congregation after 40 years of ministry. I bristled a bit.
It’s not quantity. It’s quality.
We’re not a small congregation. If you look at the churches in the New Testament, none of them were “megachurches.” Paul wrote letters we’re reading 2,000 years later to churches of no more than 30 to 35 people, which means that by New Testament standards, we’re not a small church. We’re a normal church (although the definition of normal might be questioned!)
Numbers aren’t always a good measurement of health.
God measures health by the standard of loving God and loving others (and living in harmony while we do it). And God measures health by the way we trust him.
We may be a small church, but we serve a big God.
One of the most important church growth verses in the Bible is Matthew 16:18, “I will build my church.” The two key words are “I” and “my.”
We took the name “Christ Church” because the church belongs to the Antecedent of “my” and “I.” We are the Body of Christ in East Limestone and in the communities in which we live and work.
This means that Jesus gets the credit. He builds the church. We follow his lead. We trust him.
I don’t know how many more years of ministry I have. 50 is a nice round number, so maybe another 10 or so. But I’m blessed to be able to serve them here! I keep thinking of a quote I heard a dozen or so years ago: “Some of the most rewarding events occur late in a leader’s career.”
That’s my experience. Thank you.
Blessings,
Pastor Terry
And the cards, gifts and messages I got . . . several from unexpected corners . . . they all really touched my heart! (And this is not to mention the bottle of water that “miraculously” turned into something more potent! I took a big swig right before the service began . . . WOW!)
Right now, I’m sitting at my kitchen table, looking out the window at the snow and the birds. I put out extra seed, and I’m covered up in cardinals, purple finches, doves, blue jays, grackles, thrashers and at least one rufous-sided towhee (and that’s just the ones I can identify). I hung the absolutely beautiful and magical wind chimes on the doorframe going from my den into the kitchen (which is still not finished), and I give them a whirl whenever I walk by.
Perfection.
I don’t remember who I told I wanted a set of wind chimes, but thank you to whoever remembered! They were a wonderful surprise. Now I’m looking forward to warm weather so I can sit outside and listen to them while I study. And the inscriptions on them . . . perfect!
Speaking of the inscription . . . any good surprise requires at least a little deception. Kim told me someone in the church wanted to know my favorite Bible verse, but wouldn’t tell me who, and I had no idea why! I had to think a bit before I answered because it’s sort of like asking a momma which is her favorite child (I asked one woman that several years ago and she replied, “my neighbor’s”).
The first verse that popped into my mind was, as you can probably guess, Mark 12:30-31, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength . . . You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
But then I thought of the theme verse for the book of Romans. If you remember, Paul wrote Romans to keep the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers united. But I think the verses that really summarize the letter are 15:5-6, where Paul prayed: “May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
That’s it. There it is. That says it all.
Especially when we put those two passages together, words from Jesus in Mark and words from Paul in Romans, we get a beautiful picture of who we are and what we’re to be about: Loving God . . . Loving Others . . . and living in harmony with one another while we do it.
I think y’all do a marvelous job at all that. Sometimes the harmony part threatens to get a little out of tune because we have a lot of really strong personalities, but from my vantage point as pastor I can say that I’m blessed to serve in a congregation that loves God, loves others, and loves one another.
Someone actually asked me if it bothered me in any way to be pastoring a small congregation after 40 years of ministry. I bristled a bit.
It’s not quantity. It’s quality.
We’re not a small congregation. If you look at the churches in the New Testament, none of them were “megachurches.” Paul wrote letters we’re reading 2,000 years later to churches of no more than 30 to 35 people, which means that by New Testament standards, we’re not a small church. We’re a normal church (although the definition of normal might be questioned!)
Numbers aren’t always a good measurement of health.
God measures health by the standard of loving God and loving others (and living in harmony while we do it). And God measures health by the way we trust him.
We may be a small church, but we serve a big God.
One of the most important church growth verses in the Bible is Matthew 16:18, “I will build my church.” The two key words are “I” and “my.”
We took the name “Christ Church” because the church belongs to the Antecedent of “my” and “I.” We are the Body of Christ in East Limestone and in the communities in which we live and work.
This means that Jesus gets the credit. He builds the church. We follow his lead. We trust him.
I don’t know how many more years of ministry I have. 50 is a nice round number, so maybe another 10 or so. But I’m blessed to be able to serve them here! I keep thinking of a quote I heard a dozen or so years ago: “Some of the most rewarding events occur late in a leader’s career.”
That’s my experience. Thank you.
Blessings,
Pastor Terry