Use Us TODAY, O Lord

Our family continues to seek after the Lord's will for us - on a daily basis. Rebecca leads out at her local ladies' Bible study, and teaches the Youth SS class, along with our son, Stephen. I lead the Adult SS class at our church, and have been preaching on a rotational basis until a new pastor is called to lead our church. On the home front, we try to lead out to build bridges which will keep our extended family together, although with everyone's schedules so busy, it's a tough thing to accomplish. We especially hope to gather as many together as possible during the holiday seasons, but nearly all the families have their own plans in place already.

Personally, I have a meeting this week before our Denomination's Pastoral Board, where I have presented myself as a Candidate to serve as the next pastor of our local church. How this meeting will go, or whether I will even meet their criteria is anyone's guess, at this point. I'm doing all I can to leave it in the Lord's hands. He is more than capable of placing me where He wants me. Of course, this will affect our whole family, as well. They have known our life as active, busy "Christ-followers" for all of their lives now, but the life of a Pastor is even more involved. Even before our pastor retired, I volunteered to produce the church Bulletin - a task I greatly enjoy, and "plan" so as to be ministry as well as an information sheet. The SS class I teach recently began a book about personal and congregational spiritual growth. How this will spread to the rest of the Body is a matter of the Lord's will and guidance. It is my heart's desire to see our small Body grow - in spiritual maturity, foundationally, but also numerically, as an extension of that foundation. Without both kinds of growth, our church will die. Individuals will certainly continue on in the Lord, but without more people coming to the church, the older members will physically die off (and they are the majority of our membership). If a church's ministry is finished, so be it; may the Lord SHOW us that such is the case, if indeed it is. But if not, may He lead and guide us to greater outreach into the community to bring new Believers to faith in Him, and new membership to the Body, to see it grow and thrive. An additional prayer of ours is that the Lord will grant us the long-view to be able to purchase more land around us, so we can have more parking area, and to upgrade our meeting place's facilities, to meet the increased needs of greater numbers of people in attendance. There have been obstacles toward land-growth in the past; may He miraculously allow us to "extend our tent stakes"! In all these things, may He be our guide, and may it ALL be to His honour and glory!!! DL