September 20th

Good afternoon.  I want you to know how much I appreciate you and the way you responded last Sunday morning in both of our worship services.  I was especially touched by the way you sang with the worship video and In Christ Alone to conclude our time together. What was most meaningful for me was the way we all came together as church family over the news that Wynn Hansen was fired due to behavior that does not manifest the qualities of a pastor/elder listed in the Bible (1 Tim. 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9) and his violation of Meadowbrooke Churchs Partnership Covenant (If you were not here last Sunday, I encourage you to watch the sermon on our YouTube channel that you can access through our churchs webpage). 

As you can expect, our worship service will be a bit different this Sunday.  We will continue to sing songs together, I will continue in our sermon series, and we will begin a search process to find our next Pastor of Worship and Discipleship... eventually.  I believe that the most appropriate response to this past Sunday is for our church family to seek what it is that God wants for all of us in and through the immediate days and weeks to come.  What Sunday showed us is that it does not matter how many instruments are on the platform or even who is up front; what matters is our response to who God is in and through our worship and how we live out our faith beyond the walls of Meadowbrookes church building.  

The two passages that I have not been able to stop thinking about since this past weekend are found in Isaiah 66:1-2 and Ephesians 5:26-27.  In Ephesians, we learn that the way Jesus is loving, sanctifying, and cleansing His Bride (the church) is through, the washing of water with the word.  When it comes to our worship on Sunday or how we live out of faith throughout the week, we learn from Isaiah: This is what the LORD says: Heaven is My throne and the earth is the footstool for My feet. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For My hand made all these things, so all these things came into being, declares the LORD. But I will look to this one, at one who is humble and contrite in spirit, and who trembles at My word (Isa. 66:12). 

For the immediate future, we have a plan for Sunday mornings.  The heart behind the way we will move forward needs to be what we read in Ephesians and Isaiah concerning the way Jesus wants to beautify His Bride and how we ought to respond to His Word.  I am convinced that God is going to meet us where we are as we gather together this Sunday and every Sunday to come.

I look forward to worshiping with you this Sunday in our 9 and 11AM worship services.

Grace, 
Pastor Keith