Leadership Banquet
11/102000
Rick
In every church, God places a key component that’s critical to its success. The success of Glenville New Life Community PCUSA is found gathered in this room. Our key component is the willingness of the leadership of this church to submit itself first to Jesus Christ, and then to one another in that same spirit.
Toby
Where ever we go and people ask about our church, we always find a way to bring the conversation around to how the Lord has used you to make a difference in this part of the body of Christ.
When we think of the honor of serving at Glenville New Life Community Church, the words which come to mind is Give thanks with a grateful heart, give thanks to the Holy one, Give thanks because He’s given Jesus Christ His Son.
Rick
We are all what we are because of Jesus Christ, who has come into our lives and made a change. Each one of us here as a testimony of how our presence at Glenville New Life Community Church has in some way changed the course and direction of our lives. Some of us shudder to think where we might be today if the Lord had not met us at this church
Toby
We appreciate that this is a church where Jesus Christ is proclaimed as Lord and Jesus Christ is actively changing the lives of people.. We are unashamed in saying that Jesus is the only Way to God, He is the Truth, and He is the Life. Jesus is the one who makes us all equal at the foot of the cross. He didn’t die more for some of us and less for others. He said all of us were in need of His salvation. Our goal at Glenville goal is to lift up the name of Jesus Christ and become witnesses for Him , because if we have Jesus we have everything, if we don’t have Jesus, we have nothing.
Rick
We as pastors appreciate the call of God on your lives. Some of you were in Christ long before we arrived and others of you have come to know Jesus as your Lord and Savior since. This church could not be what it is today without the prior faithfulness of those of you who were here before we came and with the continual faithfulness of those who have since joined in.. God did not send us here to start a work in ministry, but rather to build up on a ministry which He had already put in place.
Toby
The other pastors before us did the digging, the planting, some did the weeding, and we did the watering, but it was God all along who was making the church grow. God had a plan for the church then, God has a plan for the church now, and God has a plan for the church in the future.
Rick
God didn’t call you just to come to the church. God called you because there was something He wanted to do in you. You didn’t get saved just to go to heaven. The word of God says, Eph 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Say it with me. God has prepared a work for me to do for Him today.
Toby
In the past few weeks in Life-Sharing, you’ve seen how God grants leaders the privilege and responsibility of making sacrifices of themselves, before asking anyone else to do so. When we look at the eagerness on your part to bring the New Life Center into reality at a great cost to yourselves, we are humbled by the quality of believers we are privileged to have in this part of the kingdom of God. One member said right after her turn in the prayer vigil, "for a moment I found myself already sitting in the New Life Center. I could see it."
Rick
We appreciate the openness to the move of the Spirit in the lives of many of you as individuals. At Glenville, we recognize that not every opportunity to serve God is going to be something great, but it will be something needed. We as pastors need your willingness to be servants for the Lord. We don’t do the ushering, the counting, the nursery, the singing, but you do. You collate, you clean, you cook, your encourage, you direct, you type, you pray, you visit, and you mail.
Toby
You dance, you serve, you vote, you plan, you teach, you guide, you lead, you help, you give, you come, you send, you build, you paint, you mop, you sweep, you witness, you invite, you bring, you take home, you call and you seek to live your lives for God.
Rick
Praise God for all of you who are saying to God again and again, "Here am I Lord send me.’" A great church is great not because of great leaders, but because of great partnerships. God intended for leaders and people to be in partnership with each other in building the kingdom of God. One of the things we have at Glenville is partnership.
Toby
We appreciate your love for Jesus Christ. Although many think, we come to Jesus to get happy and an easy life, many of you understand the call to follow Christ is a call to come and die to your own way of doing things. In so doing you find out, God has a better way. Jesus gave the call , "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Every time what we feel like doing is not what God wants us to do, we are asked to take up our cross.
Rick
Each of us has to pay a price to follow Jesus Christ at Glenville . It takes energy and effort to come to church. But when you love Jesus, it doesn’t cost as much. It takes energy and time to volunteer to serve when needed. But when you love Jesus, it doesn’t seem to cost as much. It takes a sacrifice of money to tithe. But when you love Jesus though, it doesn’t seem to cost as much. You might not always feel like singing praises in church. But when you love Jesus, you do it because He deserves it not because you feel it.
Toby
There’s something about a love relationship which makes you willing to go that extra mile or two. Instead of seeing obstacles, you see opportunities to impress the person with just how much you truly love them. When you’re love with a person, you’re eager to offer the very best for them.
Rick
When we think of the New Life Campaign and the New Life Center, we know that you want to offer the Lord your best. We all know the New Life Center is going to impact literally thousands of peoples lives. Many of the lives will be the lives, families, and friends of people in this room. Many of them are people who are on their way to knowing Jesus. The exciting thing about the New Life Center is knowing that people are willing to stretch themselves to come up with the extra money to invest in this vision and plan of God.
Toby
We all know that the New Life Center is far bigger than all of us. Like David, we do not just want a building to be put up, we want something which by itself in appearance will bring honor and glory to God. We want it to look inspiring so that when we people come in, the very walls will reverberate the love, the sacrifice and the commitment that went into the place. It will be our holy ground.
Rick
We appreciate your love for each other which continues to grow and abound. Some of you literally opened your homes to people who were in need, and now the individuals are actively serving Christ in the life of the church. Walter and Katy opening their home to Felicia which has further led to a Terri. Some of you have opened your wallets on several occasions to help others in their time of need. It’s been one thing for Rufus to be a lawyer, it’s been another when he and his Yvonne have had to come up with funds for some of us who were clients and couldn’t afford what we needed for our defense.
Toby
Some of you have opened your lives to others to keep them from being discouraged when they faced children on drugs, or divorce, or the death of a loved one. How many of you here have turned to Helen, Estelle, Sylvia, or Sherrell as a person for counsel for encouragement in the midst of a storm in your life.
Rick
Just look at how many of you are impacting the lives of people. Where would we be without Claude, Simmons, Elva, and our Lay Pastors teaching bible Study. How many kids have been touched in Pioneers by Rufus, Sharon, Gail, Essie, Kacie, Barbara, Sherrelle or in the Nursery by Sam and Gail. Those of you in Youth Worship, you may not know who is going to be in heaven because of a lesson you taught.
TOBY
Think of how God has used Gwen, Karen, Annie, Greg, and Katy to develop some of the richest praise and worship music in the city. Three choirs not competing with each other, but inspiring each other in their own way in leading us in praising the Lord. How many of you here have served the Lord in dance as Liturgical Dancers, bringing another dimension to our worship services. The leadership provided by the Women Association, the Men’s Association , The Worship Committee and The Singles have made things possible as a group that individuals could not have done.
Rick
Estelle, Shannon, and Andrea are forever working hard to improve our ushering and coffee hour period. Our counters Helen, Althea, Cheryl, Sylvia, Rhonda, Ira and others are committed to keeping our records in order. Our staff people Evelyn, Gloria, Hasson, & Simmons are eager to go beyond the call of duty. Our Deacons have never failed to make us proud when ever a need has come up in the church. There is a tremendous joy in knowing that your Session is made up of men and women committed to the Lord Jesus Christ We cannot say enough about Session member’s willingness to try to keep God’s plan at the forefront in our meetings.
Toby
You see our church is about people impacting people for the cause of Christ. When we started organizing the directors for the campaign, we knew we were choosing some good leaders. Some of you though, have gone above and beyond what we expected of you in your role as different co-directors. It’s as though God Himself raised you up for such a time as this. Some of you have just so blossomed in the Lord that your works are simply beautiful. Your spirit of enthusiasm simply overflowed into the congregation at large.
Rick
One thing this campaign has taught us is to not try and limit God. On the first night when Bob was giving us suggestions, he was offering us alternatives, but some of you kept saying oh yeah we could do that too. So we had a 40 day of fasting and prayer, a concert of prayer service, a 24 hr prayer vigil, and a prayer walk. The support coming out of the congregation in each of those have exceeded what we thought.
Toby
Thanks to the Prayer Committee, The Personal Contact Committee, The Leadership Committee, The Communication Committee, The Essay Committee, & Administration Committee, almost everybody in our church has been touched by the Nehemiah Project either in person or by phone. To God by the glory for it all.
Rick
You see God has been at work in us to bring us to this point for quite some time. We did not get to where we are today without the valuable contributions that you have made in the past. We needed you to bring this church back from the brink of closing doors to the bright light it is today.
Toby
We are now on the greatest threshold of our church’s history. God has used us in some wonderful ways in the past. But the Lord is about to take us to whole new level. Our faith is going to grow and our sense of reliance upon Him will be strengthened as never before.
We have need your presence in our lives in the past, but saints we are going to need you to stand with us as never before in the next few years. If we had the money, we’d build the New Life Center ourselves as a gift to the Lord for the blessings He has given to us. But God has not placed us in that position yet.
Toby
By us all being willing to make real sacrifices, and they will be different for us all, God will make a way for us somehow. We want everybody to stretch their faith, without being foolish in making a pledge to the New Life Center. We’re talking about a 3 year period of commitment.
It’s not simply a matter of are we satisfied with what we’re doing for God, the real issue is, is God satisfied with what we are doing. Because We Love And We Care, we’re going to make our best investment. No one needs to feel they gave too much or too little, because it’s not equal giving, but equal willingness to sacrifice.
