Investments Tips For A Healthy Church

Investment Tips For A Healthy Church

9/23/07 Ecclesiastes 12:1-7 Matthew 9:35-38

Today we look back and recognize the 45 years God has blessed this particular part of the body of Christ known first as Glenville Presbyterian Church and today as Glenville New Life Community Church PCUSA. As your pastors for the past 18 and ½ years, we can say that it has been an incredible blessing to be involved with the legacy of this church. When we see the people who have come through these doors through the years, we know that we have been blessed by our God.

45 years after our start, we are a church still seeking to enter into a right relationship God to be equipped for the ministry of Jesus Christ to make a difference in the lives of others. We are a church that values our love for God. A church where men and women, young and old and all in between serve as co-partners in doing the work of God. We work together as a leadership team in making decisions. We have no qualms about letting the world know that this church believes that Jesus Christ is the only way to God, the Bible is the inspired word of God, and that God is in the business of changing people’s lives.

All churches matter the same to God and are equal, yet we are grateful for this church, and the people that God has called to be a part of it during its 45 year history. Isn’t it amazing, that before the Romans built the Roman Empire a couple of thousand years ago, God already had plans for you to be a part of this church. Now that’s what we call advance planning. It is amazing how God plans, and then invites us to be a part of the process to see if we will work together with Him, to change a part of the world for the cause of Christ.

God has allowed us to have had a small measure of success in the ministry that He has given us a church. Let us help you to see what we mean by success. We’ll ask you a sea of questions, and if at the end you can say” I am among that group we want you to stand and give God a measure of praise.”

Is there anyone here who has been beaten up by life or made some serious mistakes and you found God’s grace here and discovered that God is not only the God of the second chance, but the third, the seventh and the eleventh chance? Is there anyone here who came through these doors and did not know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior but now you do? Is there anyone here who did not know how to pray or what to pray, but because of this church now you do?

Is there anyone here who was going through a personal crisis, a loss, or a grief and you found a family that stood by you? Is there anyone here who had not heard there was a Holy Spirit but now you have and you’re using your spiritual gift to make a difference in the lives of people? Is there anyone here who went through the pain of a divorce, but you found God’s love and reconciliation here that got you through it?

Is there anyone here who thought their marriage would not make it, but because of the God of this place, your marriage is still intact today and it’s getting better? Is there anyone here who know what it was like to be addicted to drugs and alcohol, but discovered a God who could deliver you?

Anyone here who needed wisdom and guidance for a decision you needed to make and God provided it for you. Is there anyone here who knows that the God in this place has changed them from what they use to be to what they are now? If you can say, I’m in that crowd stand on your feet and give God the praise.

Let us ask you this, who do you know that does not need this kind of a God who can make such a tremendous difference in their lives. 45 years of ministry has brought us to a crossroad as a church. We have so enjoyed God’s blessings, that it may be possible that we have forgotten there is a huge group of people who do not know what God has available for their lives. They do not even know that it is s possible to live differently. They have never come through the doors of any church, and they have no plans to do so anytime soon.

Nearly two thousand years ago, when Jesus walked the face of this earth, Jesus was preaching the good news to people and healing every kind of disease and sickness. As he looked upon the crowds, he had compassion on them for they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.