Just a few days ago I wrote on my facebook status ... Dry Season? .. Where are you?
Dry season is something I personally look forward to every year ... and it should be or normally would be here by now. Seasons ...
Ecclesiastes 3 talks about seasons
A Time for Everything
1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
I personally am loving the season that we as a church are in at the moment - growth, stretching, anticipation for what lies ahead, and people sensing their is more, much more.
Hope City Church is in a process season. But like Dry Season in Darwin - which is not here yet ... there comes build up, the rain, the knock down rains and the build down .... Seasons.
God is really doing something in our hearts first and foremost - for me I have to admit some of it has been like the knock down rains ... knocking some areas in my life down which needed to be knocked down. Flip and then comes the burn off .. yikes!
But I tell you what - for some strange reason I like the season - because I know the Dry is coming - the season that I love. And I know the season for myself and also the church is also coming - but it is a season of harvest.
Over just the past 4 weeks there have been around 40 decisions for Christ ... and that has been across both campuses ...
Salvations are great - but I believe too that the season we are also in is one of making Disciples - because it is the disciples that Christ builds the Church with ...
The 'merge' as we have called it is a real blessing ... for Don and Priscilla to impart into Deb and my life has been invaluable. We are loving it. We love our connect group, we love that people are stepping up to the plate and we are not gap filling, we love working in team, and we love that we know our backs are covered by our Senior Pastors (your Senior Pastors).
I cannot speak on behalf of the people that I have seen Don and Cilla speak life into at Malak just in these first few months of the merge, that is those peoples call. But as a Pastor myself I can speak of the fruit I have seen in those lives, and the joy I am seeing those people walk in. That warms my heart.
I see a season coming that will be as enjoyable as Dry Season in Darwin is for me ... it will always mean work still, and hard work. But there is something about working in a team, with a team, and with a secure Pastor who lets each of the team play their part that makes that work fun, fresh and fruitful.
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
I read that verse 11 from that same chapter in Ecclesiastes and get excited - that descriobes how I see HOPE! I may not fathom it - it does not mean I cannot see it though .... love this stuff!!
Until next time,
Always Hope!
Kieran
