Good morning and happy Saturday.
Wow, did we have a great evening last night at church. Omar had put together another worship night and it was fantastic. It started off with a group of youth from our Hispanic service. They played and sang a medley of songs in Spanish. Then, four ladies from the Sudanese church sang two songs. The first of which was in Arabic. Then Omar and the team he assembled did four or five songs bilingually. All of it worked together for a beautiful night of worship and fellowship afterwards. It is always a blessing to worship with a variety of people. Having had the privilege of going various places on mission trips, it was always a blessing to experience the worship in other languages and cultures.
I saw an advertisement for Nebraska recently that was from their tourism department. In it, it extoled the wonders of the state and showcased a few of their attractions. The part that caught my attention was their tagline. It said, “Nebraska – honestly it’s not for everyone.” In a funny and forthright way, they are saying that there are some people that probably won’t like Nebraska. It doesn’t have the ocean, it doesn’t have anything like a New York City or a Los Angeles. It does have a lot of places to fish and camp. It has some beautiful scenery and places to visit. Nevertheless, it is Nebraska located in the heartland of the U.S.
As I thought about their slogan, it reminded me of our church. Community Impact Church – Honestly, it’s not for everyone. That’s not to say that we don’t try to reach everyone that we can. However, we are a multi-ethnic church in an area that has a high percentage of people in poverty or the lower end of the economy. For some reason, that isn’t always attractive to everyone. But that’s ok. God called us to this community to reach people that were often being overlooked by the other churches in the area. We frequently have homeless people in front of or sometimes in our church. People stop by asking for food, money, and prayer. Hurting people looking for help in the midst of an often indifferent world. We reach out into areas that are often characterized as the most impoverished by the SMSD and other sources. These are often single-parent households that face a myriad of challenges. To say that some of the youth are challenging would be an understatement. Nevertheless, we press on, seeking to demonstrate the love of Christ to people that don’t always experience genuine love in their lives. On Sunday mornings, we have an eclectic mix of people that gather for service. People from a variety of walks of life, some from other places in the world, all coming together to learn about and worship Jesus. To me and our leadership team, it is a picture of heaven. To some that visit, they wonder what is going on. They likely have never seen a church like ours. Sadly, the vast majority of churches in the U.S. are very monolithic (or should I say monochromatic?). I praise God that He has allowed us to have a church in a very multi-ethnic community that has a multi-ethnic pastoral staff. May He continue to guide us as we seek to impact our community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
9 After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb! 11 All the angels stood around the throne, and along with the elders and the four living creatures they fell facedown before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honorand power and strength be to our God forever and ever. Amen. (Revelation 7 – describing the multitude coming out of the tribulation)
Hope to see you in the morning! We will be having a prayer service at 9:00 and I will continue our series in the book of Colossians at 10:15.
From our neighborhoods to the nations,
Pastor Larry
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