One of the things I believe God wanted us to grow in as a church throughout 2021 is to better recognize some of the ways He is at work in our midst. I had three primary prayers for us as we did this. First, I prayed that we would rejoice over His grace to us. One of our core values is “joyful worship”. Recognizing some of the ways God is working in our midst will help us to more joyfully worship Him with our lips and our lives through every season and circumstance. Secondly, I wanted us to be encouraged. I don’t know a person or a church body who is too encouraged. My prayer has been that as we have recognized some of God’s grace toward us as a church, we have been encouraged in Christ and in the worthy work He has sent us to. Third, I prayed recognizing His handiwork would make us hungry for more and more of Him and His work in our midst. The truth is, God is always working in powerful and profound ways, both in the ordinary and extraordinary. Often, we don’t see it, recognize it, or acknowledge it.
So, as you read this final installment for 2021 highlighting a few glimpses of grace in our midst, I would ask three things of you. First, let’s praise God and be encouraged together because of God’s work in our midst. Second, I want to encourage you to be on the lookout for God’s work in your life and share it with those around you through 2022. Third, as you see God at work in and around you, I’d love to hear from you. Please email me at david@sentcharlotte.org.
Here are five glimpses of God’s grace from the months of November and December:
We hosted our 4th annual chili cookoff. On November 7th, we hosted our 4th annual church-wide chili cook off. This is always a wonderful time for our church family to come together and enjoy some time, wonderful chili, and a friendly game of kickball together while meeting some new faces in our community. This year was no exception – in fact, it was especially good to be together since we were unable to have this event in 2020 due to COVID. Brooke Wagoner won the coveted first place chili award and will remain the reigning champion until the fall of 2022 when someone will have a chance to dethrone the champ.
We had our final prayer and worship night of the year. This is one of the many ways we practically live out our core value of “dependent prayer”. We want to be a people who regular and faithfully cry out to our God in prayer. We want prayer to be one of the things that unifies us together as a body. On Friday November 12th, we gathered as a body to spend dedicated time together praying and singing to our Savior. As always, we know that he heard us and we know that He answers us. We know God loves to hear and answer our prayers! Getting to pray together as a body is a gift from God and I look forward to all the ways we will get to pray to Him and see Him answer our prayers in 2022!
Andrew and Emily Ridgers celebrated four years serving as deacons over our children and students. Andrew and Emily have been an absolute gift to Sent Church since they joined this local body over five years ago. Four years ago, they began serving together as deacons over our Sent Kids ministry and have continued to serve faithfully in that role. Since then, Emily has joined our staff and also serves as our administrative assistant and Andrew has expanded his deacon role to oversee our Sent Students as well. God continues to use this wonder couple in the life of our church family and we are grateful to God for them. Andrew, Emily (and Riley) are regular glimpses of God’s grace in our midst.
We served several individuals/families in need in our area through our angel tree for Justice Ministries. One of the ministries Sent Church has the privilege of partnering with in our city is Justice Ministries. They are laboring faithfully to combat human trafficking here locally. Throughout the month of December, we were able to collect gifts and donations to give to several individuals and families this partner in ministry gets to work with. We give generously, because our gracious God has given so generously to us. The generosity we get to share with each other and those around us is a reflection of the generosity that has been shown to us.
We had a wonderful advent season together. We got to journey through several of the Servant Songs in the book of Isaiah together as we walked through this advent season. We were reminded again that the King of the universe was Born as promised to live a perfect life, die a substitutionary death, and rise victoriously from the grave so that we all may have forgiveness and true life in Him. And He did it all because He truly loves us. What a gift that we get to celebrate the birth of our King together every year (and every) day of our lives together.
I pray these glimpses of God’s grace would bring us to more joyfully worship our great God and be encouraged in Him and the work He has sent us to. What a mighty, gracious, and active God we serve!
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