Tearing Down Walls

This is a door way from my kitchen to my den. This is looking from the kitchen.

Same door way from the den looking to the kitchen. We decided to transform the den into a breakfast/computer room by taking down this wall.

Going...

Going...
Going.Gone.

I think I am going to love my new breakfast room!

What is in a Name?

My church has officially left our denomination (Presbyterian USA) and thanks to other churches also leaving the denomination who paid half of our buyout we will own our building (that we already paid for), for just $40,000 more.

One of the tasks at hand for my church is renaming itself. We will be part of the Evangelical Presbyterian denomination but we can choose any name we like. The congregation will have the opportunity to suggest names and the elders will make the final decision. For me, this is a symbolic way for us the have a fresh start without erasing the solid foundation we have built. I have been praying and thinking about the importance of the name we will choose.

We do not have to include Evangelical Presbyterian in the name. Certainly it is a trend for new churches to not include their denomination in the name. I read where someone wrote “For some, this is a pragmatic concession to avoiding doors where there should be windows in a church’s public image.”

Should the name of our church tell you who we are before you ever walk in the door or should our name welcome you in so that we can tell you about it ourselves? I think we should avoid any name that excludes people…I for one, and I might be the only one, think we should leave our Presbyterian baggage out of the name. Even if we hang our new Evangelical status on the title Presbyterian, which we would have to if we were to use Presbyterian according to our dismissal guidelines from PCUSA, we still would be boxing ourselves into a denomination and excluding others who are not a part of that denomination. I would say that few people driving by our church on State Road 19 would know the difference between Presbyterian and Evangelical Presbyterian.

We could be geographical in our name and tell you where we are. Heritage Street Church, Main Street Evangelical Presbyterian Church or Northwood Community Church.

We could go for a cool, hip-even, “emerging” church name. The kind of name that sounds more like a club or a rock band, than a church, like Revolution, The Rock, Elevation, Mosaic, Impact (these are all real names of existing churches). I read this guys blog and found that there is even a church called The Scum of Earth. I was thinking Grave Deifiers, Filthy Rags Community, Metamorphis, maybe get all the little boys excited Transformer Church.

But seriously how about The Lighthouse? That is cool and hip but also part of our church mission statement, which says that we are to be a lighthouse, a greenhouse and safe house.

Maybe we should stick with a name that gets to the point of who we are – keeping words that explain our very essence in the name; Christ, Cross, Grace. Maybe we should POINT the way there… Gracepointe, Cross Pointe, Christ’s Community.

Hmmm….any suggestions?

Answer to Searching

At the end of 2008 I began to blog about my spiritual search for the right church. I had been dismayed by the seeming lukewarm energy of my small church. I began to seek God’s will for my church life and along with 2 friends from my church began to pray for revival. Because of the fire in my house and the subsequent moving around I feel like I never quite finished my thoughts here on my blog.

I am sure that my little Sunday school class were not the only 3 praying for revival of our church, and I am sure that others had been praying long before October but I believe that God placed me in part of His perfect timing as an answer to my search for the right church. I believe this because there has hardly been a Sunday (or any day) since October, when we began to pray, that I have not seen God move in my church in a huge way; ripping open the heavens and sending us His spirit, bringing us new faces, showing us new ways to be His hands and feet, confirming our prayers, open new doors and shutting other doors and showing us the Way. God seems to be moving in my little church in ways that even the nonspiritual observer cannot deny.

If you have been reading and wondering what I have decided in my church search; I will be staying with my present church. But my church will not be staying the same old church.

Blessed

God has provided for me in ways that are so evident in my life. I was stripped down to nothing while in prison. No children, no money, no possessions, no control. The Great God of Second Chances has restored and rebuilt my life in all the ways that we humans count as blessings. I have a home, I have my children, I have a job, and I have an address book of names of those who I count as friends. He has also blessed me in many ways that humans seem too miss as blessings. As I spoke to a group of Jr High kids last week about how Jesus transformed my life I was blessed. God has given me freedom. And I have stayed chained to His side.

Over the last few months my home has temporarily been taken away from me due to our fire and yet it is a perfect blessing. I feel as if God answered prayers through our fire. It has not been hard to praise Him for the fire when all the blessings are pouring in.

The economy has taken a toll on my paycheck. Since I work mostly on commission our lack of sales affects me directly. In the last month my hours have been cut to 4 days a week, which made my small salary miniscule. Today my eyes welled up with tears when I went back to my office from a meeting where we were told that our pay would be cut by 10% including my commission. I started in on my calculator trying to figure where I would save the difference. My heart started to pinch; a scowl crept across my face. I trudged home from work feeling defeated.

Then I remembered all of what I wrote in the first paragraph. I remembered how God has taken care of me. I praise God for all He has done and all He will do. I know that He continues to bless me in ways that are worth much more than money. I know that many are in the same economic situation; I do not have to look far to see those that are much worse off than me.

But here is what I know; that there is nothing that anyone could take away from me that would mean more to me than my God. If I have Jesus, I have everything.

MEALTIME MINISTRIES

My little church is acting in a big way to help our community which has been hard hit by the economic recession. So far God has provided in many ways for us to be able to begin a new ministry and we are trusting in Him to help us continue to provide.

MEALTIME MINISTRIES

A free weekly meal for unemployed and underemployed
individuals and their families in the Wa-nee community.

Every Tuesday
Supper will be served at 5:30pm

Location is at the:

First Presbyterian Church
(in the Family Life Center)
1155 N Main St
Nappanee, IN
574-773-3773

Spread the word to those that have lost their jobs or have had their hours cut. This is a great opportunity for our community to work together and help each other. You can help by donations of money and food or volunteer! There are time slots for cooking, serving and clean up. (Volunteers get to eat too!)

Matthew 25:35 "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,"

Where There is Smoke there is New Carpet

Here is what I have been up to…

• Ordering new carpet
• Getting gas lines run to the house
• Deciding on flooring for the kitchen
• Throwing away things and sorting out non salvageable stuff in my storage room
• Waiting on insurance estimates and approvals
• Buying a new sofa, throwing the old one in the dumpster outside
• Putting my clean laundry away into the boxes that we are living out of
• Surviving with only 2 pairs of shoes (I know most women did not know this was even possible)
• Preparing walls to be primed and painted
• Sorting through the plethora of paint color chips that I have collected
• Wheeling and dealing to get a good deal on my new furnace and air conditioner (Those are Installed but not running until an approval is reached on the scope of duct work)
• Trying to make everything fit in my budget
• Feeling blessed that God continues to provide for me in ways that I could not have ever imagined.