GOD IS IN THE NEW
At least nine times the Bible says sing a new song to the Lord. God gives us the new covenant, the new birth, a new name, the new man, new wine, a new heart, a new spirit, a new creation, a new commandment, and new tongues. Eventually He will create a new heaven, a new earth, and a New Jerusalem. Wow! That’s a lot of new stuff!
In Isaiah 43:19 (above) God declared He is doing a new thing…. and when it happens there will be some people who will not even recognize it…. “do you not perceive it?” That is, they are so locked into “the way it has always been,” that they do not recognize what God is doing NOW.
THE FUTURE IS IN THE NEW
New churches, news classes, and new groups always do better, grow faster, and are more effective than old ones. Older established churches have a tendency to get set in their ways and resist change. Established classes plateau and can't break through. Established groups become impenetrable to outsiders. That’s why RENEWAL is always essential. New is always fresher and more effective than old.
At PCC, every member needs to experience personal renewal to restore our spiritual vitality. We need corporate renewal so that it might affect the entire church body. And we need organizational renewal so that our church systems stay lean and are able to respond quickly to change.
For the last year PCC has been going through renewal. It has been totally a God-thing. God always “purges His floor” before a new wind of the Holy Spirit blows. Death always comes before life. The seed must fall into the ground and die, before new life springs forth. For us, it has been out with the old and in with the new.
In a staff meeting earlier this year I shared with the team that I felt deep down that God was preparing us for something BIG, something NEW. And God has been doing some stuff…. mostly performing spiritual surgery on us with His “two edged sword” which is the Word of God. Surgery is painful, but it has given us a new heart.
On the human side, we’ve been preparing ourselves for God’s move, so that we might be “in position” and able to “perceive” this new thing. We’ve changed staff, changed some staff roles, developed new leaders, launched new groups, started some new ministry teams, recruited new volunteers, and even tested the waters on some new ministry ideas. All of these endeavors have helped strengthen our faith to prepare us for 2009.
PCC's FUTURE IS IN 2009
We’re not looking back, but forward. Next year will be a year of spiritual breakthrough…. Our spiritual “content” will go off-the-chart and we will experience a move of God in our midst unlike anything we have experienced thus far.
Beginning the week of Thanksgiving we will start a new series entitled, “SIGNS OF LIFE,” which will continue through the month of December. In this series we will be able to show you much of what God has done in our midst in 2008. This in turn, will give a vision of what God is going to do in 2009.
God is about to shake things up!
I would love to outline everything right here, but this post is already getting too long. But for now, would you join me in prayer about the future of PCC and what God is going to do?