Let’s keep Rolling!
This morning all four of my ‘at home’ children went to school! It seems like yesterday that they were out for the summer. Now we’re quickly heading in to fall. As the old saying goes, “Time flies when you are having fun.” What a fun summer it has been! So much has happened to establish the plans of God for us.
Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.”
As we entered the summer we had a lot planned. Now that we’ve reached the end of it, we can say that the Lord established to bless our plans. We’ve witnessed the successful and early completion of our Holland campus renovations, celebrated with scores of people who’ve joined our church family, commissioned seventy community care shepherds, and celebrated with over five hundred servants at our first ever team night. Then last weekend we had the joy of witnessing ninety-five people getting baptized at Central with another four in Indonesia and nine in Cambodia. How amazing is that! Since June 1 we’ve witnessed one hundred and twenty-seven people publicly profess Christ through baptism. To put that in perspective, all of last year we witnessed one hundred and twenty-six. So, in the first twelve weeks of this new ministry year we have witnessed about as many people baptized than in the prior twelve months of last year! This puts an exclamation mark on what a fantastic start to our new year this summer has provided.
To ‘establish’ means to appoint with certainty, or, to confirm. The point the Psalmist is stressing is the act of entrusting the future to a God who secures the plans. To be slightly simplistic, it’s about letting go and letting God. Committing our plans to the Lord is to literally ‘roll them’ to Him. A member of staff was recently discussing the last few months at Central and quipped, “We’re on a roll.” In the context of Proverbs 16:3 it seems that we most certainly are! We will continue to do so. We’re going to keep rolling our plans to Him and He’s going to keep rolling them where He wills!
Part of that process will take place this coming Sunday afternoon at 4 PM in Central’s Chapel. At that time we are inviting our congregation, members and attendees, to hear the plans the Lord has laid on our hearts for our Grand Rapids Campus. The recommendation, coming to you from the elders and executive staff, is to affirm the purchase of an incredible facility at an incredible price. We’ve done our due diligence as leaders. We’ve sought the Lord and rolled these plans for the future of the campus away from us and towards Him. Part of the process of doing that involves our membership just as it has involved the membership of the church whose facility we are believing God to purchase. They have affirmed the sale, now we need to affirm the purchase. We’ve also planned for an open house at the proposed site from 1–3 PM Sunday afternoon - so just before the vote. We will announce the location on Sunday morning at Central. If you can't be there Sunday morning but want to visit the site, make sure you participate in the live stream.
So, we’re inviting you all, especially members, to attend on Sunday where the plans we’ve pushed to the Lord will be pushed further down the road. If you join us on Sunday afternoon, you will not only witness the diligence we’ve undertaken, how it fits with the vision and stewardship plan God has given to us, but also how pumped Pastor Toran is about what God is doing at The Local Church Grand Rapids.
We’ve got other updates for you also: missions and a new worship opportunity. So you really don't want to miss it.
This weekend is going to be a great weekend and to top it off, at Central Wesleyan we’ll celebrate communion together too.
Can’t wait to see you all,
Craig
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