Pastor's Note
January 30, 2025Do you have any recent experiences that highlight God's grace? Do you have compelling ministry stories? Have you seen God bringing fruit through some of your gospel efforts? If so, we want to hear about it! During the family time segment of the Sunday service, we often feature spotlights on missionaries, news about the life events of our members, and share details of upcoming events. But we don't often hear about the individual ministries of our members outside of the four walls of the church. Generally, that is because I/we are not always aware of what those ministries are. Regularly I hear a new story about some way in which a member is ministering to their neighbors or coworkers, or serving through some other ministry. Now whenever I hear such stories, I can't help but think what an encouragement it would be to the whole church if the whole church heard about it. I think we often keep quiet about the ways we serve precisely because we don't want the spotlight, and because Jesus does teach us to not let the right hand know what the left is doing, lest we serve and minister for the purpose of self-centered praise instead of other-centered good (and God-centered glory). However, sometimes such ministry stories ought to be told, not for the glory of the individual servant but for the praise of God and the encouragement of the church. And we would be greatly benefited to learn of how God is using the people of our church beyond our church. So, to co-opt a familiar phrase, "If you see something, say something!" If you are aware of someone doing wonderful work inside or outside of CBC, let us know. It may be good to highlight that work publicly, that all may be built up.