In September, 2009 the leadership and congregation of the Shippensburg First Wesleyan Church made the decision to place 6+ acres of undeveloped land on the market for sale. For the past 24-months, this adjacent lot continued to stay on the market with the occasional interested potential buyer but no sale.
This past week, on Thursday, August 25th, I had the privilege of joining our treasurer, trustees, and a buyer at a local lawyer’s office for the official signing after the successful sale of the undeveloped lot.
I cannot begin to describe all of the God-things that took place before, during, and after this signing took place – to say that things came together in a miraculous-fashion is only a glimpse into how God truly orchestrated things and revealed Himself as our Provider in His perfect timing.
I was recently having a conversation with a friend who is also in the ministry and he acknowledged the fact that sometimes churches fail to celebrate the “little” things. Sure we have “mortgage burnings” and we show up in hoards for new construction and groundbreaking ceremonies. We celebrate New Life in Christ and I’ve always loved being a part of the shouting crowd as folks are brought up out of the waters of baptism. We should celebrate all of these things – and I’m glad we do.
But the truth is that many celebration-worthy events happen probably every week in the lives of our churches and sadly they are only revealed to a select group of leaders or acknowledged quickly as a “win” and we often move right along to the next order of business.
On the day of the signing this last week I brainstormed with my wife how in the world we could truly celebrate this event in the life of our church family. Her suggestion: Party Poppers. You know what they are – you can pick them up at the grocery store in the party section and they’re quite small and dare I say… lame? We both knew we could do better!
A quick stop at our local fireworks store netted us an arsenal of what I’ve been referring to as “commercial grade party poppers”. Some of these bad-boys shoot up-to 25-feet!
This morning at the close of our service I announced the God-provided sale of the property and a bit about how oftentimes we would be quick to give thanks and move on to the next order of business but that today we were going to CELEBRATE what God and His hand of Provision has done for our church!
The congregation gave a favorable response, I brought up our trustees and treasurer and we celebrated this seemingly “little thing” in a big way!
I did mention that I would be MORE THAN happy to do the cleanup after our celebration, so you can guess what one of my first tasks will be tomorrow morning!
What ‘little thing’ do YOU need to be celebrating in a big way?
