Peace. The Lord has been pressing the theme of peace into me through his word lately. Jesus tells a bunch of people to "go in peace" after he heals them. Peace, or shalom in Hebrew, is one of the root words for Jerusalem. God gives it. We experience it. It guards our hearts. There's so much to peace! I'm finding myself pressing into the idea, longing for more of it, and excited to see what's coming as a result of his peace. Acts 9 talks about the church having peace - and then promptly multiplying. Give us peace, Lord. Multiply your kingdom, Lord.
We gathered CCC's Leadership Teams this Sunday and it was incredibly encouraging! Sunday after church, our 3 leadership teams and their families came together for lunch and a time of worship and prayer. Y'all, you should be encouraged. Humbly, our leaders began to be united in prayer - that whatever is next for CCC would be a vision from God and not man. And more than that, trusting that whatever is next will be much greater than our leaders could dream up on our own.
How a hotel lobby reminded me of the church's coming and going. The Bracken family plans to come to Christ Community Church after a season of providing leadership at Midland. But they haven't made it to church yet. Jeff messaged me a couple of weeks ago and explained his plan to provide a time of teaching and prayer for the families involved with Zae's baseball team. This past weekend, several families gathered in a hotel lobby in Evansville to worship God. That's pretty cool! I was reminded that church is always both about coming and going. Coming together as believers to be encouraged and reminded and equipped is vitally important. But so is going to our friends and neighbors to share Jesus.
Trey & Tammie Williams and their kiddos are an encouragement to me. Trey and Tammie answered God's call to come and lead Midland Community Church in a hard season. This past Sunday, after leading well in that season, they joined the family of believers at CCC. In a couple weeks, you'll hear more of Trey's story and we will have a chance to pray over and bless them as they move to what God has next for them.
We're partnering with a big family of churches to send out 79 new missionaries to 33 countries today! As I type this, I'm streaming the IMB sending celebration that's happening in New Orleans. Y'all, it's inspiring stuff! Every time you give to CCC, a portion of that is going to the International Mission Board (IMB) to help send thousands of missionaries. As I listen to these missionaries share how God called them, where he's sending them, and request prayers as they leave for the nations, I want to keep leaning into sending our very best. Whether CCC sends you across the street to share the gospel with your neighbor, down the road to start a group that reads Scripture together, across the state to plant a new church, or around the world to people who don't even have God's Word in their native language - Let's be a church that JOINS JESUS wherever he sends us! Check out more on these amazing sending celebrations: https://www.imb.org/send/
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