Praise Your Name Lord God Almighty We give thanks to God for Glenville New Life Community Church. On this 50th anniversary, we pause to see where we have been, but also to rededicate ourselves to the work ahead, work yet to do and give You the glory, for You are a good God, worthy of our praise and celebration. Speak to our hearts, O God, as we actively listen to the preaching of Your Word on this great day of celebration, so that We remain focused on the high calling of Jesus Christ upon our lives as your Church. In Jesus Name amen.
Moving Forward In Service For Tomorrow
Numbers 9:15-23 Luke 9:28-36
P.T. Today is a day of celebration. A celebration of what God has done a celebration of what God is doing, and a celebration of what God will yet do. When God calls us, it is a call to engage in a partnership with God, to make a difference in the world. 50 years ago, God called a group of believers to bring into this building, the church of Jesus Christ. The goal was to move the body of Christ forward in service to the Lord Jesus Christ. And each time we move forward today, we position ourselves to be ready for service tomorrow.
P.R. Glenville New Life Community Church as ministering servant is fifty years old today. She is made up of those who have served from less than a year to those who have served all fifty years of her existence, and all those in between. It does not matter when you came in or what age, color, or financial status you had upon arrival, what matters is what have you been doing since you arrived? What have you done or what are you doing to keep us moving forward? We all have a part to play.
(Hi-5 your neighbor)
P.T. The one thing that is necessary in order to move forward is a willingness to listen to God, and a commitment to follow wherever the Lord leads. When the children of Israel, God’s people, were coming out of Egypt, they had their eyes set on reaching the Promised Land.
The Promised Land was a land that was rich in fruits and vegetables, and fertile farm land. It was a place where the people could prosper and be at rest from their enemies.
But most important of all it, would be a place to offer service to God and to each other in peace. There would be no more slavery and brutal treaatment. BUT, (Everybody say)To get to the Promised Land the people of God had to be in touch with the Spirit of God.
P.R. God has a promised land for us as a church. It’s a land in which we shall see our family members getting saved. It is a land in which we will see people give their hearts to Christ. It is a land in which the desires of our hearts will be fulfilled.
It is a land in which our broken relationships will be restored, our financial setbacks will be turned around and our wavering faith will be made as solid as a rock.
It is a land in which people are set free from the addictions of this world. A land where people discover God truly loves and cares about them. It is a land in which when people see us they will declare, surely God is in this place and we knew it not.
P. T. Ya know Saints, Moses didn’t know how to get the people from Egypt to the Promised Land so God helped him out. God gave instructions for the people to build a Tabernacle; it was kind of like a portable temple that could be moved from place to place.
In order to build it, they asked for volunteer donations, much like we asked for in our vision 2000 Campaign, Our New Life Center Campaign, and Our Excellence in Giving Campaign.
Now the people donated so much, they had to be told to stop making donations.(P.R./P.K), We never quite had the problem, but we did have the hearts of God’s people here at GNLCC, rose up in rich generosity, because we as a church, too, wanted to move forward in service.
P.R. When the tabernacle was built, there was a cloud which represented God’s presence that led the children of Israel by day and by night. The cloud would be like fire providing light during the night. God moved the cloud from the front of the people to reside directly over the tabernacle itself.
When people saw the presence of the cloud, they knew that God was still among them. We do not have a cloud with us today, but we do have the Holy Spirit. Jesus told us the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth. So when we have needed direction these past 50 years we have looked to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the reason we are celebrating 50 years today.
P.T. Halleujah!! Now Saints, One of the things about the presence God is that it either extremely delightful or very fearful. Our N.T text, for today, tells us, that One day Jesus called Peter, James and John to join him in prayer up on a mountain. When they got up the mountain, there was fresh move of God, and Jesus was transfigured before them.
JESUS’ face changed and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightening. Moses and Elijah appeared and they were talking to Jesus. When the disciples saw all that was taking place, Peter was just amazed and he wanted to launch the first church building program.
Peter said, “This is fantastic to be here, let’s make three shelters, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” But then a cloud appeared, and as it enveloped them and got closer and closer to them, the disciples became very afraid.
They did not know what was about to happen. Then they hear the voice, “This is My Son, whom I have chosen, listen to him.” And then it was over, (and what do ya know), things went back to normal.
P.R. One of the things that can keep us from moving forward in service is in having a dramatic experience with God. We will immediately want to maintain what is happening by building a shelter around it.
Only we don’t think of it as shelter, we turn it into a program, a ministry, or an annual event on the church calendar and though it may be good, it may hinder the next move of God. We won’t want to let it go. We enjoy what we are getting out of it too much to let God do something new.
God may want to take that second step which is to surround us with God’s presence to produce fear in us to get our eyes focused once again and remember it’s all about Jesus, and we need to listen to Jesus. ( Hi -5 Say: It’s all about Jesus!)
P.T. How many have noticed that One of the things about God, is that God refuses to be kept inside of a box. One of the reasons we have made it to age 50, G.N.L., is that we recognized the Spirit of God moves, and the Spirit of God does not always remain in the same place, or return to the same spot.
There were ministries at Glenville the first 25 years, that were not here in the second 25 and there are ministries today that did not exist (25 or 50) years ago.
Many things have changed: the pastors, the building, the people, the visions, the styles of worship. (Tell somebody)-God is always doing something new. But what has remained constant is that Jesus Christ is lord and has the ability to change lives!!!!.
P.R. God made it fairly easy for the children of Israel to know when to move forward in service. When the cloud over the tabernacle rose up to the sky and headed off in another direction they knew it was time to go. It didn’t matter if things were going well right where they were, or how much they liked being at this particular camp site. When the Spirit got up and left, it was time to move forward in service. Our passage of scripture in Numbers told us that sometimes the Spirit stayed over the tabernacle a long time, and nobody moved. Sometimes it stayed where it was for just a couple of days. Sometimes it stayed only from evening to morning. Sometimes it lifted during the day and sometimes during the night. But whenever it lifted, the people got up and moved. Sometimes it was two days, or a month, or year, but whenever it moved they moved.
God’s schedule is not always our schedule. God does not mind allowing inconveniences in our lives in order for to be drawn closer to Christ. When we say yes to Jesus, we’re saying I’ll yield to some discomforts in my life and to some things I may not personally like in order to move forward for service.
P.T. Saints, God is letting us know that the key to moving forward in CHRIST, is to follow God’s lead. It’s good that not every ministry lasted 50 years, because it they had, some fresh ministries would never have been born. We have been blessed during 50 years to see ministries birthed, and to see some ministries die.
We have been blessed to have seen saints born and be baptized, and to see saints go home to be with the Lord knowing the time of their departure had come and they were ready to give an account of their faith, and hear the words: “Well done, good and Faithful servant, Well done”. Their going home to be with Jesus has been an important part of our moving forward in service, as they have passed on the baton to those coming behind them. Hallelujah.
Saints, One of our strengths as a church, has been, our willingness to try and discover if the spirit of God is in a certain vision, a ministry, or idea, by giving it a chance to develop.
We also have learned that each ministry/outreach has its season from God. Our success is not based on how long something happened, but ON: did we respond in faith when God said to raise it up. Halleujah.
P.R. God moved the cloud from above the tabernacle at least 40 times setting up camp in a different place each time. No doubt some people did not want to go forward with all the moves, especially the moves that led deeper into the desert. Can you imagine leaving a place call Elim with twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees to go to a place called the Desert of Sin.
In our 50 years, we have not been able to take and to keep everyone who became a part of us on the journey, but we are thankful for the contributions they made while they were here, because they too helped to bring the church into these walls.
P.T. We are thankful for those of you who were here during the time: that hard choices had to be made, and even though things might not have gone the way you wanted, you stayed here, because of your belief that God yet wanted to do something through the body of Christ known as Glenville.
How many know that: Every church has its struggles. And that:In 50 years, a church has plenty opportunity to experience a few struggles?! Amen.
And Yes, We struggled over music style would it be traditional or gospel, we struggled over merging with St. Mark or closing the church, we struggled over length of service was it 1 hr or 1 and a half, we struggled over tithing or asking for an amount extra, we struggled over pews vs chairs, we struggled over staying in the denomination or leaving it and we struggled over finances, would we keep staff or let them go, we struggled over food in the sanctuary during worship or not.
But, we believe THAT: Sometimes it was not so much the struggle issue itself, that God was interested in, as much as GOD was INTERESTED IN: how we loved and treated each other in the midst of the struggle. But struggle is only part of our story. ( Say “only a part”!)
P.R. We also have tasted the sweetness of victory. We are thankful for those of you who are here that have made victory possible during the past 50 years that have led to us moving forward in service. In 1988 the church was considering the possibility of closing. Just two years later, in 1990 we were looking at how great a future was ahead for us as church. That happened because we as a body said yes to the Spirit of God. We had an enthusiasm that with God, anything was possible.
P.T. Saints, As a church, We have had a victory in vision. You see, It was your giving, that allowed us to have two full time pastors and on to a third. It was your service and sacrifices: that produced outstanding youth programs, from choirs, to dancers, to campers, to scouts and to knights.
It was your commitment to justice that opened the doors to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and the Civil Rights movements before other churches thought it might be the right thing to do, and it was your commitment decades later, “that had our church” as a campaign headquarters for the nation’s first African American president, Barak Obama.
P.R. It was your zeal that sent us up and down the streets inviting people to church, to activities, and to Jesus Christ that helped to shape lives. It was your service that made possible all of our adult ministries, choirs, and teaching programs. It was your openness that tolerated a brother named Milan crying out “well” and “amen” that made it possible for gospel music to flourish and to even have Peter/Band help out the pastors preaching every now and then. (Bless you Peter/Praise Band!)
P.T. Saints, We have had victories in compassion. We have been moving forward in service, because we have been a generous church in helping those who could not help themselves. It was a joy to talk to Pastor Juice’t in Haiti on the phone to let them know Glenville was sending a $17,000 check to assist them with their building. (Can somebody say: “Hallelujah”!)
We made a $30,000 pledge to the church in India. (Can somebody say: “Hallelujah”!)
We have given almost $30,000 to Rotolu Home in Nigeria. (Can somebody say: “Hallelujah”!)
Think of the wheelchairs and the bicycles we sent around the world in our Least Of These Projects. (Can somebody say: “Hallelujah”!)
Saints, We have blessed so many people in this church, and in the community during their times of need. Praise God!
P.R. When we did our first New Life Campaign and we exceeded our goal of $350,000 the group that led us in the campaign called us back a couple of years later to ask us, what did we do with what they gave us that led to our success whereas others had not done what we did. We wanted to tell them, they were dealing with God and Glenville.
Each year, we are high among the top per giving members church in our presbytery. That’s because of our love to try to bless others. Although we may not reach our goal for our Excellence in Giving Campaign, we have been blessed in many ways in that even in a down economy, we have come up with an extra $100,000 dollars in our giving over a 2 year period and there is still more to come in.
P.T. GLNCC, We are thankful that our influence in the world is much larger than the size of the congregation. E-mails from Germany, a phone call from China, comments on you tube from South Africa, and a lot more lets us know our ministry is far beyond the walls of this building.
We have been faithful not only trying to go all out with technology, we “still” do ministry the old fashioned way: of going door to door to reach people.
We “still” give out church cards to family members, strangers and friends, and enemies, knowing that we never which way the Spirit is at work in their lives, and that card just might be the first step in a seven step process of the person coming to know Jesus Christ. Hallelujah!
Indeed, there has been a presence of the Holy Spirit in our midst that has kept us together through joys and through sorrows. We as a church body, have strived to live up to our theme: “we love and we care.”
For fifty years, Saints, we have been working on that goal. We know, at time, (Say: at times) we have fallen, but we have gotten up again, in order to move forward in service because we know tomorrow is coming, and there’s still much to be done, and we want to be ready to go wherever the Spirit is leading. ( Tell your neighbor “Get ready, Get ready, Get ready!)
P.R. Today is a day of celebration of what the Lord is doing right now. So many more of you are equipped with a knowledge of the word of God than you were a few years ago. You are our new leaders. More of you understand what it is to follow Christ with your whole life. You are our lights to the world. This spiritual growth can only mean that God has us in a position to do far greater things than we have ever done before. Not only do you bring the church of Glenville into this building, you take it into your homes, your schools, and your jobs.
Our 50 year celebration is a milestone for us, but it is not yet the Promised Land that God has for us. We need you not to say, look what we have done and sit down, but rather say,
“O God, it looks as though the best is yet to come, and I want to be an active part in helping to make it happen”.
Yes, Saints, We’ve got a Bright Future Ahead. And, indeed, the best is yet to come!
P.T. As the Praise Team comes Let’s conclude this Anniversary Message together, By proclaiming in song : the Chorus “Status is changing, Future is Bright, we’re on our way to Better Days. Halleujah.
Let us pray… You have blessed GNLCC. We thank you, and, we know that there is still much to be done. Help us to remain focused on the high calling of Jesus Christ. Indeed, We desire to be A Holy Spirit Filled, Transforming Church, continuing to build the kingdom of God, that you Lord Jesus through we your church, will continue to save and transform lives, as we lift you up. For You said that; If we lift Jesus up, You have said, I will draw all unto me. Make it so. In Jesus Name Amen
OUR INVITATIONAL CHORUS IS Alpha and OMEGA The doors are open…
