The Commission

Well, today was a really neat Sunday.  I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but our church is in the process of opening a second location across the river from Peoria in East Peoria.  This second location is not so much a traditional church plant as it is a “multi-site.”  As the current catch phrase goes, “One Church, Two Locations.”

In any case, we spent the month of December having a series of launch services on Sunday evenings at East Peoria Junior High School, which will be the East Campus’s location for the next few years.  Last Sunday, we had a practice, run-through service, not open to public and mostly designed to see what needed to be done before a public launch.  One hundred fifty-three people participated.  Next Sunday, we will actually have our first service open to the public.

However, this Sunday, there was a basketball tournament at the school, and the pastoral staff saw this as a great opportunity for the launch team to be commissioned by the congregation from the original campus location.  So, this morning, we all worshiped together one last time before our senior pastor, Jim Powell, had all of us going to the new location stand up to be prayed over and to have hands laid on us, to commission us for this new task.

It was rather bittersweet.  As Jim pointed out, this was the last time that we would all be together at one location.  Jeff and I have really grown to love Richwoods and the people that we’ve met there, and, while many of our closest friends also live on the east side of the river and will be launching the new campus, we have many friends that will remain at the original location.  And the fact is, we won’t be seeing those people much anymore, without lots of extra effort.

Nonetheless, this was a neat time and a great sendoff.

After the second service today, there was also a special luncheon for everyone who had been baptized in 2010 and their families.  Wonderfully put together by Richwood’s baptism coordinator, this luncheon was a chance to share a meal, listen to a few words of encouragement from Jim, and then listen to people’s testimonies about how their lives have been impacted by their baptisms.  As Elijah was baptized this past August, we had the privilege of being there.

As there were many teens and younger that were baptized this past year, not a terrible lot of people offered testimonies, but those who did said some pretty neat things.  One lady wept as she shared that she had not been back to church since her baptism, as she is depressed and really struggling.  Nonetheless, she knows that Jesus is her Lord and Savior, and she is trying to hold on to that.  Others shared that their baptisms have helped them live for Christ in a way that they had never done before and to share Him with others.

As the Chicago Bears were in a noon playoff game, the luncheon was short but very, very sweet!  (The Bears’ win this afternoon was just an added bonus!  There were also lots of late service folks at the early service today, for the very same reason.)

All in all, this was a very good Sunday, a nice respite before the real work continues next week.  I’ll tell you…starting up a new church is a lot of work, most of which has been done by people other than us.  We are helping in the children’s ministry for the time being, which is definitely not my first preference.  But there is a real need, so, for the time being, I am learning to dance with the kid worship songs.  (Yes, that should be a very funny image.)

In other news, Jeremy had his nine month checkup this past week.  He is growing well, still in the 95th percentile for height and the 75th for weight.  Things like the audible breathing and the constant draining nose, which are worries for us, are more inconveniences, according to the doctor, so I guess we’ll try to quit worrying.  Our doctor figures, and probably rightfully so, that if Jeremy is eating well and continuing to grow, we don’t really have any problems!

Charlotte will be visiting Peoria Christian School this upcoming Wednesday for a “Shadow Day,” which will hopefully give us an idea if it might be a good fit for next year.  I’m still ambivalent about it, but we’ll see how it goes.

And I suppose I’ll finish up Christmas and New Year’s in my next post.  About time, huh?!

Have a good one!