A Kingdom Day!

Were the Sunday morning services great or what?

Many of us were tired from the Music & Worship conference. It had been especially wonderful this year. Our visitors were refreshed, the concerts were graced by God’s presence and old relationships were renewed. We were ready for a good but not especially charged Sunday worship service. God had other plans!

When a prophetic word from the congregation erupted in the middle of the sermon – almost never the right thing to do – God’s glory poured out over everyone. That word filled the air with faith. Many of us are still feeling the effects.

I had been preaching on “The Now and Future Kingdom.” I developed the thought while reading N.T. Wright’s book, Surprised by Hope. (I recommend it. The book’s teaching on the resurrection soaks into your heart and rearranges your thoughts.) As I was talking about drawing circles around our areas of influence and declaring the space within the circle as “kingdom space,” I asked a few of our leaders to walk around the church. That’s when the word burst out from the pew.

We are hearing all sorts of testimonies now from the congregation about what is happening to their businesses and homes as they “draw the circle.” If you have a testimony, I hope you will share it with us.

I am into my third week as senior pastor of Christ Church. Today, I am at work on the other part of my duties as corporate president. Tonight we have a board meeting and I am trying to grasp all the fiscal and organizational information I need to work with our board and corporate officers. We want to manage our earthy resources as well as we can so that God’s work is not hindered in any way.

We do what we are supposed to do and we keep watching for the Lord to do what only He can do. Sunday, God showed us that He still calls the shots and remains the real head of the church. That’s what it means to be a church in line with the Lordship of Christ – doing our best to discover what the Spirit is up to and then doing all we know to cooperate with His agenda.
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