Strength for the Week - Remembering Who We Are

Remembering Who We Are
         
So the first annual Nutley Community Expo has come and gone.  The turnout was great, there were great conversations to be had, and it was not, thankfully, too hot out!  There were a few negatives, though: my feet hurt by the end of the night, the emcee’s microphone was way too loud, and the pizzeria serving pasta ran out of forks at one point.  We all somehow survived…
While we were there, I was speaking to my friend Rich who was walking the Expo, and we were talking about my reasons for exhibiting.  I just wanted to give away Bibles, and have one more event where the Reason for Hope name was out there for the community to see. 
Well, we gave away a good amount of Bible and tracts, so I left knowing we served part of our purpose.  I would just have to wait and see whether or not I was successful in getting our name out there.  But I didn’t have to wait long…
As we were packing up for the night, a woman came up to me to thank us for being a part of the Nutley Good Friday service a few weeks back.  She said that she really liked how RFH is part of everything in the town, even at other churches, because it shows how we really are together as Christians.  She didn’t need a Bible from us, and she is already a member of another church in town, but she was the reason the night was a great success.
As a church whose website and literature push the idea that “we aren’t just another local church, but part of the whole Body of Christ” and  that, “all too often, local churches forget that the Body of Christ extends beyond the walls of their buildings,” it was very encouraging to know that, to someone from the outside, we are, as a local body of believers, living out our vision for our church.
Brothers and sisters, even though we are not rapidly growing, and even though we are not yet fully seeing the results of what God is doing through us, we need to keep on giving what we’ve been giving, being what we have been, and doing what we are doing.  Because God has a way of letting us know that we are where He wants us to be.
So this week, please be as encouraged as I am by the fact that, at least for one member of our community, what we are is a reason for hope.
Praise God!

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