From the Pastor
In a few weeks Community Church will go through one of the most stressful transitions a church can face: the changing of pastors. You may have noticed some tension within the congregation over the past weeks and that could increase as the time gets closer. People are speculating about the future and questioning whether things are on schedule. That’s a natural response. Who will be our next pastor? When will he be hired? Who will preach in the mean time? No one likes the unknown and the future is filled with it.
Let me encourage you during this time to resist the temptation to worry or lose hope and become discouraged. When people lose hope they quit. They give up rather than persevere. We all know that worry doesn’t add anything to our lives. The great church father, Thomas a Kempis, once asked, “What else does anxiety about the future bring you but sorrow upon sorrow?” And as for discouragement, the sons of Korah asked this in Psalm 42:5:
“Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”
Instead of looking at the unknown, look to God. Corrie ten Boom once said, “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” God has proven Himself faithful time and time again. He knows the plans He has for us, plans for a future and a hope. That hope keeps us moving forward, confident that even through hard times God is at work.
There will be times in the days ahead when we will think that things haven’t gone as planned. That kind of thinking sells God short. He works even when we cannot see it. He never changes, and His plans will come to pass. Everything that happens is a part of His plan. One day, when you look back at these times you’ll see that God had it under control the entire time. It is then that you will remember how great our God is (Luke 1:37).
RB