After a whirlwind of preparation, we are nearly ready to worship this Lord’s Day in our new building. The final touch to the sanctuary will happen today when Clint Hughes from Grand American Piano will deliver our piano, a 1922 Steinway A3 (6’ 4”), a special piano they only made for 20 years and an instrument he completely restored. This one has been in a single family its whole life and has original ivory keys. Clint has blessed a number of CREC congregations with golden era pianos (1900-1940s) which were hand-made with old growth wood and high quality parts when Americans didn’t sit around screens at night but played and listened to music together in their homes. Lord-willing this one will fill our sanctuary with praise to God for generations to come.
When we first planted Emmanuel Church in 2013, after just a few months it occurred to me how fruitful it was in the lives of the people involved. We came from our beloved mother church Trinity Church with no problems or division, only blessing and high hopes, and the thirty-something people who came had all kinds of opportunities to work and do new things in a new local body. When a grown child moves out of his parents’ house he necessarily has new responsibilities. If he gladly embraces these he will be on a course to succeed. Our new building presents another opportunity for faithfulness and maturation, and we’ve seen the beginning of these challenges and blessings.
When Nehemiah and Israel were rebuilding the walls in Jerusalem, Sanballat, the enemy of the Jews, mocked them: “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day?” (Neh. 4:2). They stayed focused on the work and prayed for God to deal with their enemies. “So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work” (Neh. 4:6). The people had a mind to work. It’s not the lack of physical ability that keeps a church from flourishing, but lack of vision, unity, and grace that drives working for the Lord. When you rent something, the landlord decides what the floors look like. But when a church owns it, the person or committee in charge gets to decide. They get to consider others more high than themselves, or fall prey to taking themselves and the color of the carpet way too seriously. And the congregation has an opportunity to be grateful or to complain about the work done on their behalf. The “mind to work” is not just about accomplishing a task but building up one another and honoring the Lord as we do it.
We have been extremely blessed with a church filled with people who want to serve the Lord and this new building reflects that from help with the purchase documents, landscaping and exterior work, narthex and sanctuary design, moving and organizing, furniture, signage, hospitality, and on and on. We have met many people doing work on the building and in the neighborhood, and having a physical presence in the community during the week is a huge opportunity and blessing.
Our last Sunday at Providence Classical Christian School, who graciously hosted us post-Covid until our last Sunday on 7/26/26.