One Church Update – Jan. 18

by | Jan 18, 2017 | Acts 2 Community Voices | 0 comments

By Rev. Andy Nelms
When I was growing up, I got to learn about these three people from the book of Daniel that had the funniest sounding names — Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. These three people, who must have had trouble growing up in elementary school when the substitute called their names, were Hebrews living in exile in Babylon. While in exile, King Nebuchadnezzar took over and built and shrine of himself and declared that every inhabitant should bow down before it and recognize King Nebuchadnezzar as a god. Well, the three Hebrews refused. They told the king, the most powerful man in the world, “no.” Nebuchadnezzar threatened to throw them in a furnace and even in the face of this threat they responded, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to present a defense to you in this matter. If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up” (Daniel 3:16-18 NRSV).

I love that! “But if not, be it known to you…” These three stand up to the most powerful man in the world not knowing what will happen next, but they do know what will happen in the end. In the end, God will rule. I’m learning to understand these three pillars of the faith more and more today.

This Sunday, Jan. 22, at 10 a.m. at Frontier Elementary, One Church will have its first worship service. This is an important day as we look for “critical mass.” If we have more than 100 adults in worship this Sunday, we will go weekly in worship. If we do not, we will push back and try again on February 19th. We do this because the best church planting data tells us to. I say all of this to say that I do not know what will happen next, but I know what will happen in the end.

I’ve been working very hard for the past two weeks to ensure that we will have 100 adults in worship this Sunday. I’ve called everyone I know and invited them to worship. I’ve encouraged our launch team to bring friends and family and do everything they can to help us reach critical mass. I am very hopeful that we will have 100 adults in worship this Sunday. “But if not, be it known to you” God will still be glorified. I do not know what will happen next but I do know that God will rule. I look forward to worshipping with you this weekend as we celebrate the fact that no matter what, God will rule!

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