Milestones

I can't believe how quick time goes. Pastoring at LSCC has been a joy and privilege. I am approaching a milestone here in a couple weeks. I will have preached my way through the book of Revelation. If you ever doubted there was a Holy Spirit, I can vouch for His existence as every week He has given me words for His people from this mysterious book. All praise and honor to God who has never left me standing on Sunday morning without something for His people. Investing 20 or so hrs every week for the message on Sunday has a side effect, it makes the weeks really short and Sunday comes around pretty fast. It really does feel like my life is speeding by right now. In the midst of the whirlwind of ministry, God continues to give me the grace to be a dad and husband, son and brother and a friend.

There have been some other milestones here recently. Casey started college and is doing great. Even though she might rather not be a student right now, she is working hard and already being a light in a dark place. Garrett turned 16 in August. We marked the occasion by taking a few days by ourselves down in the Smoky Mountains @ Kickback Kottage (Thank you Lance and Jennifer Matson,) We hiked, ate and did some manhood vision stuff. It was a great time together. Gavin just turned 13, another milestone in life. We spent a day out at Shades state park, hiking, throwing the football and thinking on scriptures to live by as a man. God has convicted me to teach and show the two boys He has given me what it means to be a real man. When they are ready to leave my home, I pray they will be strong, faithful men of God and will know how to love a woman, disciple their children and make an impact for God's Kingdom. Maisy will have a birthday in a couple weeks, hitting double digits (10). She always seems to be smiling, works hard at learning and is back on the piano:) Like her older sister, she has a song in heart and can be heard quite often singing worship songs in the shower! Lucy is almost ready to cross the milestone of no more diapers!! Woohoo!! That girl never stops talking and never forgets anything we say! (Maybe a bad combination.)

LSCC has just passed a milestone too, Oct 11 we were two years old. We have met so many people! God has grown our fellowship to over 100 people now. It's amazing how quickly He ties our hearts together. I am so grateful for these special milestones in my life. They cause me to stop and look around and see the incredible work God is doing in my heart, my family and my church. Life comes at you fast (I think a commercial said....) It's good to stop and celebrate the markers along the way!

Voices

We are in such a unique and special time as a church. Our numbers on Sunday morning have begun to show us that a change is needed in our place of worship. We are running out of space! The trouble is we have no more space to go to. In response to these circumstances I felt the burden to ask our congregation to pray for 40 days, asking God to open the way for our next step of growth. Needless to say, there's a lot of room for God to work! The grounds we meet on are owned by the Meijer Corp. To be able to purchase acreage there would be a miracle. It is expensive land and last we heard, Meijer wanted to build a store there. Though God has richly supplied our needs, our funds are small when compared to the prospect of buying land somewhere and putting up a building. Acquiring debt in large amounts isn't on the table at all so, we've turned to our heavenly Father, knowing He started this church and has a plan for it.

As I have told our situation to different people, I get a variety of responses, mostly positive. A week ago though, there were three different individuals who responded with something like, "God will do it!" I heard each of those voices speak faith into my heart. At first, I didn't hear them that way, it wasn't until the third voice that made me stop and think, "Is God speaking to me?" When I woke the next morning, those three voices became one and I knew God was encouraging me to believe.

Why is it so hard to believe? Maybe because the voices of doubt are there in the air too. My own being one of the most consistent! What an opportunity for God to show His love and care for His church. What a chance for people to see His hand at work in these circumstances! We might become a praying church out of this!! We might be people who live by faith and not by sight!!! In the midst of all this, I'm striving to hear the voice of faith and look for God to answer us when we call. Lord, help my unbelief! Blessings, Pastor Greg

A Thick Presence

This past Sunday, my wife and I visited a small church in Broad Ripple called, Olive Branch Community Church. Pastor Phil Jackson, his wife, father and sister and brother-in-law are leading a group of believers to follow Jesus. Both Lori and I came away with the same impression of this tiny band of brothers and sisters....God was smiling down upon their efforts. In America, if it isn't big and busting it must be busted so for pastors leading these small groups of people, it can be disheartening and discouraging at times when we don't "measure up" on the outside to the world's vision of success. For Lori and I, it was refreshing to be in a fellowship that didn't have a product to offer or a dazzling display of worship. As I told Pastor Phil, there is no other reason to be there for those people except Jesus. No programs to buy into, no great talent to entertain, no cool technology, only a thick presence of the risen Christ. Olive Branch Community Church is doing a good thing. There is plenty of warm smiles and greetings in the name of the Lord, more children than adults, more authenticity than consumerism. It's a place I believe people could meet Jesus, a place where you could go and be loved, be encouraged and come alive in Christ. Pastor Phil, if you ever read this, forgive me for not praying for you. I know what you are doing has not and is not easy but I believe it is what God wants you to do, in the place He needs you to do it. Count on my prayers and friendship from now on. During your service, this vs. came to my mind in Zeph 3:17, "The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing." He is singing over you today, press on, be faithful, there are no small acts of love in the Kingdom of God! Blessings, Pastor Greg

Time To Rest & Remember

Our family is on vacation this week and next. I love what I do and even the pace that I do it but I also know how that pace can wear out people around me. Resting isn't easy for me. I like to be busy with my time. My son Garrett and I recently had a conversation about taking a break from work. He had a challenging school year and was wanting to relax his mind over the summer. One things I want him to learn from me is to work hard on whatever it is he is doing, so I gave him a pretty good lecture on how life doesn't give you breaks and he couldn't just waste his summer on Facebk. Yesterday, Garrett brought the subject back up, along with Gen 2:2-3 about God resting from His work. We had a great discussion about Sabbath and resting unto the Lord. Garrett reminded me of the importance God places on resting and I was overjoyed at the way he was applying scripture to his life. That's the kind of strength I want to see growing in him as he grows into a man. So thanks to my son, I'm trying to rest unto the Lord during our vacation. I need to return refreshed both spiritually and physically.

I'm also taking this time to remember what the Lord has done over the past two years of my life. LSCC has some interesting times in front of us. We're going to need to have an abundance of faith to see how God will move our new church forward. That faith begins by remembering how He shed grace on us in the past. As the leader of this body, I want to have the most faith. I want to believe more than anybody that God is going to move a mountain for us. So I am remembering while I'm resting, lifting up my Ebenezers to remind me that my God loves me, has forgiven me, called me, heard me, answered me and everything is going to be all right. Thank you God for using Garrett to speak your truth to me, thank you Garrett for being bold enough to confront your pastor Dad with the bible, it is causing me to remember, just what I needed to do.

Great Moments

This past weekend was one of the highlights of my life. My wife Lori and I took part in the graduation ceremony for our oldest daughter Casey Elizabeth. By the grace of God, we have homeschooled her from Kindergarten and now she is off too college in the fall. What amazes me so is that all the while she was growing up, people reminded me that time would go fast. Knowing that I tried not to let days go by without noticing. I knew the time was going to go fast so I tried to slow it down and it still went by fast! I remember just like it was yesterday that Casey and I were walking hand-in-hand as I helped her walk for the first time, now it was just yesterday that she made a graduation speech and is on to the next stage of life.

I could not have asked God for a better daughter. I'm excited to begin to share her with the world and see how God will use her to bring Himself glory. I'm also in awe of my wife. She has been a teacher now for 13 years, doing multiple grades at the same time. I was able to teach two of my kids this past year on Monday's. It sure takes so much patience and focus and vision on the bigger picture to persevere everyday, especially with a two year old dashing in and out and the phone ringing and chores needing done.

I want to tell you, time flies! The days go slow but the years go fast (somebody said). Cherish your moments, your family, every stage of life. There is something to get out of every day not just get through. What is it God could be trying to say, teach, show you at this moment? For me it's Ps 126:3, "The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy." Blessings, Pastor Greg

A Double Portion

This a rare thing. I'm writing minutes before I leave for worship at LSCC but when you have an idea, with my mind, I have to get it down or I'll forget it. I've just been through one of the most difficult weeks as a pastor. Last weekend, I performed a wedding ceremony for a wonderful new couple. They are high school sweet hearts, faithful followers of Jesus and are in Hawaii at this moment enjoying a honeymoon. What an honor to join them in marriage! Then we had Sunday service which was another blessing. The scriptures focused us in on prayer so we spent a good 30 minutes at the end praying together as a body. THEN, things got tough as we went from church to Brian Remmel's calling. His funeral service was on Monday. He is with the Lord and has no worries at all but his loss here is felt hard by his wife and two kids.

If it seemed like God's grace was in short supply last week, you can blame me. I know I had a double portion of it, as God guided me through this last week. A long weekend of high's and low's. A long week of trying to find the emotional energy to share what I'm about to share in a few minutes. Thank you for praying for me, I know God poured out His grace to me and even is about to do it again. The reality of it, there is an ocean of His grace that we can swim around in but sometimes we don't have the strength to dive in, so we rely on others to pray us into the ocean. There's more than enough to go around, even when I take double my dose in a week. Pray for the Remmel's to experience that grace today. Their week, feeling Brian's absence, was exponentially more difficult than mine. Go swimming yourself, there's plenty of water in the ocean. We can't do a thing that matters without getting wet! Blessings, Pastor Greg

Difficult Days

Sometimes it feels like you have to swim upstream to get through a day. Life is feeling like that right now. Aside from some nagging things like car problems, wet carpet at church, and sick kids, the sorrow of saying good bye to a friend is drawing near. Brian Remmel is a 44 yr old husband and father to two sons. He is at home under the care of his wife and family, waiting to go home to be with the Lord. He has battled valiantly an enemy called non-hotchkins lymphoma. Our prayer since this enemy returned to his body last December have been for healing and strength. God is about to answer those prayers, just differently than we had hoped. Brian will get to be in the presence of Jesus soon and we'll miss him terribly. He is really teaching all of us how to live while he lays at homes and dies. He has had courageous conversations with his family, opened his home to friends to say good bye and kept his eye on the Lord and His strength and comfort in these waning moments of life. God has used Brian to teach me how to love the dying, how to give assurances to them when they struggle to believe what they believe and how to reach out to a hurting family.

It is such a difficult time right now as we watch Brian's life slip away. But Ps 116:15 says "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." This verse tells me, He's paying careful attention to what's happening with Brian. He's waiting for just the right time to call him home and not one tear being shed will be wasted from this suffering. Grace, Lord, we need your grace! Blessings, Greg