What you feed will grow

At choir rehearsal, Beth, our Director of Music and Worship, said something during our devotions that struck me as profound.  "What you feed will grow."  I think we all know that.  If you have ever had house plants or a garden you know that if you want them to grow you must water and fertilize them.  If you have ever raised teenagers, you know that we feed them constantly and they seem to grow by the day!

What is true of outward, physical growth is also true of inner growth.  For good or for bad, the things of the heart and mind grow when we feed them.  To feed things of the heart greatly means to dwell on them, to give them time and attention, to focus on them.  That means that if we have been disappointed, the more we dwell on that disappointment, the more it grows within us.  Likewise, if we have been hurt or offended, the more we dwell on it, the great the offense grows within us.

But the converse is also true.  If there are things in our lives for which we are grateful, the more we focus upon our blessings, the greater our gratitude grows.  If there are things in our lives we celebrate, the more we dwell upon them, the more joy grows within us.  What we feed will grow.  I believe where this becomes most important in our lives is in relationship to our faith. 

One of our core convictions as a church is that everyone is meant to grow.  I believe it is our desire, and it is God's desire for us that we are continuously growing deeper in our faith in Christ.  If we want our faith to grow, we must feed it.  That means dwelling on the things of God, giving time and attention to our relationship with Jesus, focusing on the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

So at a practical level, how do we feed our faith?  Worship, participation in a lifegroup, personal prayer time and Scripture reading are all a part of the steady diet that feeds our faith and causes it to grow.  Want to see you faith grow stronger this year?  Feed it!  Be in worship every week. Spend time with God on your own during the week.  Connect to a life group. 

By the way, if you not sure how to get started with a lifegroup, our Sunday morning lifegroups are a great starting point.  In Sandown we have a group immediately after worship.  In Amesbury the group meets over breakfast before worship.  In Plaistow, the adult lifegroup meets at 9:45 while then children are in Sunday School.  In fact in Plaistow, we have a brand new session starting this Sunday focusing on the book of James.  James is a great book to study because of it's practical application to daily life.  If you attend in Plaistow and would like to get in on the start of that class, just show up this Sunday at 9:45 and we'll help you find the room.  If you worship in Amesbury, come at 9:00 and join us downstairs.  In Sandown, stay after worship and we'll help you find the classroom.

What you feed will grow.  As we press into this new year, let's commit to feeding our faith and watch the growth that God will bring.

In Christ,

Pastor Steve

Reflections on the new year

As hard as it is to imagine, we have begun another new year.  To be honest, with its short days and cold weather, January is not my favorite month.  But I do love the start of a new year.

I always try to mark this milestone in two ways.  First, I want to celebrate the year that is past.  For our church 2016 was an exciting year of great ministry.  At every campus we saw people come to Christ and be saved for eternity.  Jesus himself said that the angels in Heaven rejoice over a single person who repents of their sin and comes to faith.

In 2016 we held our first ever Night of Worship.  This was the year that we launched our online campus.  2016 saw a significant expansion of our lifegroup ministry.  We had dozens of our folks travel the country and the world in missions.  We launched our Family Ministry Initiative this year.  And perhaps the biggest celebration of the year, after 181 years in our original building, we moved into a new worship center at our Sandown location. 

The night the chairs arrived for our new worship center in Sandown.

As we begin the new year, I want us to pause and celebrate all the ways God has been at work among us and through us.  It has been an amazing year.  The other important aspect of the new year is to look to the future.  In the same ways we pause to celebrate the year past, we also want to pause to dream about the year to come.

What do you dream of for our church?  How do you imagine God working in our ministry in 2017?  I believe the three core convictions that we talked about in the fall give us a good framework for our future ministry together.

• Everyone needs Jesus.  I believe that this year more people than ever will come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior through the ministry of our church.  My guess is that every one of us has family and friends who do not currently have a relationship with Jesus.  Wouldn't it be great if this were the year!
• Everyone is meant to grow.  As a church we want our reach to be outward to those far from Christ.  But we also want it to provide opportunities for those of us already in relationship with Jesus to grow deeper.  In 2017 our Lifegroups are going to continue to expand the opportunities to connect and grow.  I'm also very excited about some of the sermon series planned for this year to take us deeper into God's Word.
• Everyone is gifted to serve.  In 2017 I also dream of every one of us finding a place of mission and ministry that is exactly what God desires for us.  There is nothing more fun or fulfilling than to be using the gifts God has given you in a meaningful way to make a positive difference in the world!

Join us for our new January teaching series: REBOOT!

Those are my reflections as we charge into the new year.  I'd love to hear your thoughts.  What do you celebrate about God's work in our church in 2016?  What do you dream of for our ministry in 2017?  Feel free to leave your comments below.

I hope you can all join us this weekend as we continue our series "Reboot~A Fresh Start for the New Year."

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Steve