10/10/10 -- A Great Sunday at New Life Church

I have been a pastor at our church, as of last week, for 22 years! In that time, I can probably count on one hand the number of Sundays that I would say were really great, days where I wouldn't really change anything. God has done such a good work in our church, but He has done it through a series of gradual changes and good, but not spectacular Sundays.

Last Sunday, however, was one of those days that I would say was really great. For starters, the Robinwood congregation had their highest non-Easter attendance of the year and started a new class called Gospel Armor with 22 adults attending. The Riverfalls congregation enjoyed four baptisms (Audrey Lazar, Rachel Polley, David Hellweg, and Sam Cochran). Three fathers baptized their children. The service was full, but not as full as it would have been had we not sent a team to go do the service at Tanner Springs. Then we shared dinner together and the child safety training was packed. Eighty people were reminded of the importance of keeping kids safe. Add to that the 20 or so from a previous training and there are already 100 volunteers trained and ready to serve! That would have been good enough, but then 50 or so young people hit the I-205 off-ramps in Clackamas County to raise money for homeless people on World Homeless Day. Then, ReGeneration had a large crowd who were challenged to choose the path of wisdom from Psalm 1:1-6. If that weren't enough, one young man came up to me then and told me how he'd submitted his life to Christ after we talked last week!

I fell into bed exhausted, but happy for God's work at New Life Church. And . . . I hope it encourages you, too.