The anniversary weekend is an opportunity to pause and reflect on God’s goodness and faithfulness to us as a church over the past two years. On 3rd July 2010 we officially opened Goldthorpe Pentecostal Community Church in the new building on Market Street and on 7th July 2012 we stopped to reflect on all that has happened in the past two years.
We had photo displays in the main hall of the things we have done in that time:
We have had family services on a range of themes, including love, ‘mission impossible’, Samson, the Queen’s Jubilee and the Olympics and been involved in a range of building work to further improve the building.
The family services reflect our ongoing desire to make God’s Word accessible to all, presenting it in a fun style, with quizzes, competitions and short sermons to show people that God is interested in all ages and can speak through a variety of media.
The building work has involved replacing all the windows in the building and rewiring the Community room. We have a new cooker and new heaters in the kitchen and have worked on the drains and have new tarmac in the car park. We have also cleared our old building site on Beever Street before we sold it.
The other photo display looked at the outreach work we have been involved in (including working with other local churches and missionaries) and at the role of the Bible in all our studies. I’m sure you’ll be pleased to know that the food boxes are already full again as we seek to minister to needy people in Goldthorpe! This display also looked at all the fun activities we do together as a church (parties, celebrations and so on.)
Two years ago we put up a photo montage in the foyer showing how we had worked on the building. We have just put up another photo montage showing how the journey of faith has continued (with thanks to Stan Plus Stan Two for the donation of the photo frame):
I believe it is vitally important to record and remember all that God has done, partly because we have a human tendency to forget, partly to proclaim to others His marvellous deeds. That’s one reason I am keen to keep this blog, so there is a record for people to see what God is doing. We have photo albums in church of all that is happening and these displays reflect the diversity and range of ministries in which the church, a body of ordinary believers with an extraordinary God, are involved. Wes King has written a song called ‘Remember’ which says:
“Remember
Oh, I never will forget
My Ebeneezer
Is the day You paid my debt.” (Wes King, ‘Remember’)
The reference to Ebenezer is taken from 1 Samuel 7:12: ‘Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”’ (since the word ‘Ebenezer’ means ‘stone of help’). These anniversary weekends and photo displays are one way we set up our own modern-day Ebenezers, reflecting on all God has done to help us and trusting He will continue to be our help and our shield in the days to come.