We own a building! Praise the Lord for His great kindness. Closing went smoothly on Wednesday, and we are off to a great start with painting happening in the sanctuary this and next week followed by stage reduction to allow for more seats. We look forward to our first worship service on August 2nd and Toast & Ice Cream Open House from 1-3pm.
It was very encouraging to worship and fellowship with Montage Church last Sunday, bittersweet for sure. Pastor Edgar from Montage and Pastor Mark Kohls from North Creek Church preached from 2 Corinthians 10 about true ministry and trusting in God to bless through His means of grace even in difficult times such as these. We shouldn’t second guess or regret our efforts to serve the Lord when things don’t turn out the way we hoped. Both pastors bear the marks of the ministry and continue serving Him. Our last hymn was In Christ Alone and Elder John Peterson who helped found Montage concluded the service by exhorting everyone not to drift from the Lord or His Church but to worship and connect to a local body. Our friends Corey and Cori Belle who also helped found Montage were there to celebrate and rejoice in all ways God blessed people through Montage. Corey has been a friend to me for many years since the planting of both of our churches, and he was instrumental in putting me in touch with the elders and recommending Emmanuel Church to the elders. We owe him a great debt of gratitude. It was a good but hard Sunday for their congregation, and the building really reflects the sacrificial labor of those folks. They remodeled the entire thing and much of it was done by people from the church. You can see what some of it looked like in the attached pictures. We hope by God’s grace to continue worshipping and glorifying the God of all grace in this wonderful place.