Faith,
I’ve been a part of the Church my whole life, and I have seen some crazy things!
In one church I served, I met a woman who was almost 90 years old who started tithing (giving 10%) of her income to her local church when she was 12. She grew up in a farming community, and the pastor of this little country church asked her to type and copy the bulletin each week. She made $2.50 a month and gave the church a quarter every month. But then, she never stopped tithing! She never made a lot of money, but over her lifetime, she gave her local church over $150,000!
Another time, I met a group of people who, nearly every week, help serve free dinners at their church to people who don’t even go to their church! They serve over 100 free meals weekly to people who never pay for them!
I met some retired professionals who could be golfing or playing pickleball with their Thursday mornings, who chose instead to dust, vacuum, and mow the lawn at their church.
I met two guys who couldn’t be more different politically, but they actually attend the same men’s Bible study every Saturday, and they pray for each other!
I met a Christian guy who was really mad at his pastor for something the pastor said. This guy had every right to be mad, so he left the church. The pastor apologized, and the guy returned to church and forgave the pastor!
This one lady I knew retired and then devoted her retirement to holding babies in the church nursery. She was a professional woman who was now changing diapers!
I met a family once that made a commitment to bring their kids every Sunday to church! Crazy!
“Whoa! Pastor Brad, that kinda sounds like our church!” You’re right! In a world enticed by boom, zow and zing, God has placed ordinary people in ordinary churches like ours who do the most extraordinary things. They serve God and each other in loving ways. And in a world like ours, God’s ordinary becomes extraordinary.
This Sunday is Volunteer Appreciation Sunday, Faith! We will celebrate all those ordinary volunteers who make Faith Covenant Church an extraordinary church! We’re going to do the most revolutionary thing. We’re going to love God and each other. It’ll be extraordinary!
In Christ alone,
Pastor Brad
***Sunday’s message notes are here.
And here are some deeper dive videos relevant to Sunday’s message:
What’s an underground church in China like – Francis Chan (5:26)
Do I need to go to church? N. T. Wright (11:26)