A Season And Reason For Everything
Dear friends of HBC,
Occasionally someone will say “Everything happens for a reason”. I know this thought brings comfort to some people and in no way do I wish to take that away from anyone. However, I myself never really believed this. There are too many “loopholes” in this belief for me. It has been my experience that things happen, and God then uses these events for a reason. That is another discussion for another day.
Although I do not believe with God everything happens for a reason, I do believe this is true as it relates to the church. There are reasons why we do things. Sometimes we don’t even know what those reasons are other than “Well, that’s just the way we do things”. For example, when we say the Lord’s Prayer why do we pray forgive us our “debts” instead of the words “trespasses” or “sins” as other churches pray? There is nothing wrong with saying “debts” but again I ask, “Why?” and perhaps the answer is simply “Well that’s just the way we do things.”
Yet there are other aspects of the church we do know why they happen that way. In most churches, they have a mid-morning service. Have you ever wondered why this is the traditional time? It’s actually a very practical reason. Our ancestors were agricultural and they needed to feed the cows and get the eggs from the chickens first. The mid-morning service was simply passed down and no one really asked why because it worked.
There are reasons why we are attempting specific actions at HBC right now. We are getting a new sign because our current sign is old, outdated, and falling apart. The subtle message it sends to our community is “We are old, outdated, and falling apart on the inside, too”. Who wants to be part of a falling apart church? A new sign will help to show who we are to the community and it will also be a useful tool welcoming others to meet Jesus through our church.
We recently held a Vacation Bible School at our church. We did this to rally together as a church and reach out to young families in our community. We will be sprucing up the Lloyd Room with a new paint job. Why? Because company is coming and we want the place to look nice when they arrive. When I arrived I asked the choir to sit in the pews. The reason I made this request was because I think it is important for families to sit together during worship. It also allows the choir to feel like they are part of the church rather than a separate entity.
So there are reasons why we do things. This Fall, you will see some changes during our worship service and there are reasons for these as well. One exciting change will be having one worship service at 10:00. This hour allows young families to join us and also allows us to use our best resources in one unified service to honor Christ and make it as meaningful as possible for everyone.
When we started on this journey together last October we were all very much aware that significant decisions and changes needed to happen for the health and life of our church. We will continue to trust God, have faith, and try new ideas for the sake of Christ and for the future of our church called Hilton Baptist. Together we go forward and the journey continues…
With Grace and Peace,
Dan
Categories: Pastors Message