Monday Morning Musings
Happy New Year Everyone!
One of my New Year's resolutions this year was to revive something I did when The River was still in its infancy; that is, I wrote a blurb every Monday morning called, "Monday Morning Musings". It was me reflecting on the challenges and opportunities involved in church planting in Edmonton. Over time, I stop writing the piece as other forms of communication (i.e. Currents) emerged at The River.
However, over the last few months I've felt the need to communicate more personally with Riverites. Part of the reason is that because we've grown so much, I just don't get a chance to talk to people and share my heart as regularly as I'd like to. When The River first started out, Sharon and I tried to invite as many people over to our house for coffee or lunch just to talk and get to know people, but that's becoming more difficult now. So I thought I'd try to create a friendly on line conversation. Hence, the revival of MMM.
Here's how I envision this. I'll send this out on Monday morning. If you've already got too much to read, feel free to hit the delete button. I won't be offended. If you enjoy it, great! Then after I send this out, I'll post what I've written to my blog which you can access from our website. If something I said strikes you or you want to disagree or you just want to talk, feel free to post to my blog so that other Riverites can read and enjoy some of your thoughts.
For my first entry, I thought I'd share a little story about God's provision. Over the years, I have been continually amazed at how God has provided for us as a church. I am so grateful. This Saturday, He reminded me again that He still has His eye on us. Before set-up on Saturday, I went out to purchase a popcorn machine (the one you saw in church on Sunday if you were there) for our God in the Movies series. Over the Christmas break, I looked into renting a machine, but it was ridiculously expensive. So, I'm standing in Home Outfitters and they only have one $400.00 popcorn machine left-the floor model. So, being a good Dutchman, I ask the gal if we can get a discount since it's a floor model. She goes in the back to ask her manager. So, I'm standing there minding my own business and this guy comes up and he says, "Hey, I've got 8 gift card that I got for Christmas. For every $50 you spend you get $20 back. I can't use them. Are you interested?" I say, "ABSOLUTELY!" and I proceed to tell him that he's really giving to a church as that's the reason I need the popcorn machine. As a result, he's even happier about his offering. As I'm standing in line to pay, I realize that he gave me 8 gift cards-not 1 or 2 or even 3, but 8! I mean who walks around with 8 gift cards and gives them away. This is the exact number I needed to maximize our discount on the popcorn machine. I thought to myself, "God, you're amazing. I love how you show up in the little things!"
Anyway, keep on keeping on!
One of my New Year's resolutions this year was to revive something I did when The River was still in its infancy; that is, I wrote a blurb every Monday morning called, "Monday Morning Musings". It was me reflecting on the challenges and opportunities involved in church planting in Edmonton. Over time, I stop writing the piece as other forms of communication (i.e. Currents) emerged at The River.
However, over the last few months I've felt the need to communicate more personally with Riverites. Part of the reason is that because we've grown so much, I just don't get a chance to talk to people and share my heart as regularly as I'd like to. When The River first started out, Sharon and I tried to invite as many people over to our house for coffee or lunch just to talk and get to know people, but that's becoming more difficult now. So I thought I'd try to create a friendly on line conversation. Hence, the revival of MMM.
Here's how I envision this. I'll send this out on Monday morning. If you've already got too much to read, feel free to hit the delete button. I won't be offended. If you enjoy it, great! Then after I send this out, I'll post what I've written to my blog which you can access from our website. If something I said strikes you or you want to disagree or you just want to talk, feel free to post to my blog so that other Riverites can read and enjoy some of your thoughts.
For my first entry, I thought I'd share a little story about God's provision. Over the years, I have been continually amazed at how God has provided for us as a church. I am so grateful. This Saturday, He reminded me again that He still has His eye on us. Before set-up on Saturday, I went out to purchase a popcorn machine (the one you saw in church on Sunday if you were there) for our God in the Movies series. Over the Christmas break, I looked into renting a machine, but it was ridiculously expensive. So, I'm standing in Home Outfitters and they only have one $400.00 popcorn machine left-the floor model. So, being a good Dutchman, I ask the gal if we can get a discount since it's a floor model. She goes in the back to ask her manager. So, I'm standing there minding my own business and this guy comes up and he says, "Hey, I've got 8 gift card that I got for Christmas. For every $50 you spend you get $20 back. I can't use them. Are you interested?" I say, "ABSOLUTELY!" and I proceed to tell him that he's really giving to a church as that's the reason I need the popcorn machine. As a result, he's even happier about his offering. As I'm standing in line to pay, I realize that he gave me 8 gift cards-not 1 or 2 or even 3, but 8! I mean who walks around with 8 gift cards and gives them away. This is the exact number I needed to maximize our discount on the popcorn machine. I thought to myself, "God, you're amazing. I love how you show up in the little things!"
Anyway, keep on keeping on!
posted by Pastor Bruce @ 8:40 PM
1 Comments:
At 10:16 PM,
Alan Schulz said…
Just want to let you know that was an awesome story about the 8 gift cards.
Pretty incredible.
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