It’s hard to believe that it is the beginning of a new year! I have always heard that time goes by faster as you get older, and I am beginning to believe that it is true. 2019 is in the rearview mirror and a new year lies before us with plenty of opportunities for faithfulness to be written into the chronicles of our lives.
What will 2020 hold for your life? What does God intend for us here at Marvin as we seek to live out our mission to “call equip send?”
The days between Christmas and New Year’s, for me, are usually filled with reflection and prayerful meditation regarding my Christian witness. For me in particular this year, I am hopeful that spending the first few weeks of the year in Tanzania, Africa, will help bring a renewed perspective on keeping life simple and focusing on the expansion of God’s Kingdom.
The growth rate of the Methodist Church in Eastern Africa is exciting to watch. Many people are finding salvation in Christ, and it was my experience in the one time I have been on that continent, that the African people are a joyful people indeed!
I will join a group of Methodist pastors who have been asked to teach discipleship methods to Tanzanian pastors. I will also have the opportunity to see Pastor Alfred Njau and the Amazing Grace Church that was built by Marvin contributions. It will be exciting to be in a place where a fresh movement of God is occurring. Other trip participants have shared in my desire to bring a little of the Holy Spirit fire back here to Texas. I appreciate your prayers while I am there, especially as we work to nurture in faith those new to Christ.
As I write this article in mid-December, I am hopeful that our new children’s ministry director will be starting some time in January. I am also hopeful that we will soon fill our student ministry director’s position. Having our staff rebuilt for this new year will bring much energy, creativity and spiritual and numerical growth. I share with you in the anticipated joy of this new season in the life of the church.
This month, Marvin Church will start a new sermon series called Rooted based on this passage from Colossians 2:6-7:
As you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
Through this series, the congregation will be reminded of what it means to live as a “values based” community. We will become reacquainted with “The Marvin Way” as we seek to be faithful to the values God has called us to live out before others. We will begin with the values of prayer, humility and thankfulness. I look forward to sharing with you in this series and to the growth that God
will bring to us.
This sermon series along with our annual leadership retreat on Saturday, Jan. 25, coupled with the beginning of the strategic planning committee will help focus our church for a great year of ministry.
See you when I return from Africa!
