God’s Canvas
From the Blessing of the Children event at the beginning of November, to the Feeding of the 5000 event a week later, this month has certainly been life-giving! One of the coolest things about this month has been how many new people we had in our church building. Trust me, there are plenty of churches that have not seen a new face in decades walk through the door. I love to see Lamb of God filled with people! It’s a holy mess with spills, noise, and crowed elbows. In the midst of the chaos, old friends are reconnecting and new friends being made all the time.
Our Feeding of the 5000 Ministry brought a family here from Punta Gorda. Without knowing a single person, they dove nearly an hour to load boxes… isn’t that awesome! We had a staggering 233 volunteers help pack 6,700 meals into 1500 boxes. This fills my soul and my cup overflows with joy! Seeing all the new faces and meeting the new people is like a jolt of energy for our community. You wouldn’t believe the number of FGCU students that were working hard in our space this week… it’s inspiring! Serving others is what brings people together.
Just a week prior, we invited our preschool families to join us in Worship. For many of them, this was a new experience. The diversity of people is exhilarating! I recall being distracted by two individuals during my sermon that Sunday. It felt like they were carrying on a normal conversation while I was preaching. As it turns out, an interpreter was translating my sermon from English into their native language. How cool is that! After Worship another family, who were Muslim, expressed how happy they were that they joined us for Worship that morning. Are you kidding me? How awesome is that! People from all walks of life have been to Lamb of God this month.
To be honest, I’m hard pressed to think of a better illustration than this month for the Kin-dom of God. A ton of largely unchurched people came to Worship. A Muslim family felt comfortable enough to join us. People needed a translator because they wanted to hear the Word of God. Young people were lending a hand. People came from miles away. My friends, THIS is the church that God intended. If it sounds like I am thrilled, that’s because I am. I am head-over-heels for what God is doing here in this place. I’m writing this with goosebumps. I hope you feel the Spirit too!
It’s not just the busyness of the building, it really is how wonderfully unique we are. There is beauty in diversity and there’s millions of ways that people can be diverse. What makes us different is what makes us special. I believe, the more comfortable we feel with diversity now, then the more comfortable we will feel in heaven later. Why? Because when God creates, it is always vibrant. The church is like a canvas where God gets to paint. This month, God truly made a masterpiece! So many colors, backgrounds, and life stories came together to love and serve. I pray the energy continues and I am so thankful to everyone who made it happen!
The work continues,
Pastor Lucas
Photo by Simoné Stander