Welcome to Pastor's Row!
Today I put the finishing touches on my message for Sunday. I'm looking forward to what God is going to do and how He'll move throughout the next 8 weeks! This is a big series for me here at Pequea - I'm going to be in the saddle quite a while. Here is an e-mail I just sent off to the GAP Team - (the Prayer Team here at Pequea).
I wanted to take a moment today and to write to all of you. I want to express to you the importance of your role in prayer for my upcoming message series, "Recovery Starts Here."
It seems that every time I come to the pulpit to preach a message - God has already been teaching me a lesson in my own life. This upcoming series is no exception.
"Recovery Starts Here" is a message series that will focus on helping us to recover from our hurts, habits and hang-ups in life. We all have these.
I think about the way that I habitually try to do too much and find myself at times to thin to cover the important things in life. I think about how I habitually ignore going into solitude to spend time with God. Hang-ups? I've got plenty of those too. And hurts? Let me just share one with you.
I am the youngest of four boys - I have three older brothers. All of my brothers are married and have children of their own. All of them live in York County and are very active in my Dad's church, New Covenant. My brothers all serve on the church board or are on the worship team or serve on some sort of committee - all very involved in following Christ.
About six months ago my Dad called me down to the house and they took me and Katie into the living room and they told us that something horrible was going on in our immediate family. I felt numb and caught completely off guard. You have to understand I grew up in not a "perfect" family but certainly a healthy and functional one.
My Dad went on to describe to me that one of my brothers was having an affair. This brother of mine was on the worship team at my Dad's church. He had a regular accountability partner he met with. If you would have asked me a year ago which of my brothers was closest to Christ and least likely to have an affair - I would have named this brother.
I cannot explain to you or put words to the feelings and emotions that I've been wrestling with for the past several months. I was hurt and felt pain like I had never felt before, and I'm continuing to process that pain even as I write this e-mail to you. I'm limping along - hobbling - trying to regain my balance and pace to run the race.
Please pray that God would keep this experience fresh in my mind. Pray that He keeps the pain fresh so that I might be able to best relate and communicate the message of recovery.
Pray that God would grow our church throughout the next 8 weeks, not merely numerically but specifically spiritually and in the area of recovery. Please pray that the Holy Spirit would enable vulnerability, honesty and conviction among the congregation.
Also please pray that I would hear and discern God correctly in the things that He speaks to me both in preparation of the sermon and delivery. Pray that God would help me to preach with humility, authenticity and power.
I recently visited a church in the area with the rest of the Pequea Staff. The Pastor was quick to admit that the success and effectiveness of their church was because everything they do is bathed in prayer. This reality became clear to me once again, that, as one author says, "We can do no thing of great power without doing the prayer thing."
Let's do the prayer thing!
