REBUILD SERIES KICK-OFF

Stafford Greer, Bearspaw Lead Site Pastor

Hello RockPointe Family

Wasn’t it wonderful to spend time together as one church family last week? Looking back on Sunday, I am blessed beyond measure to be called to serve as Lead Site Pastor and to be given the charge to lead in this next ministry season; something I don’t take lightly. Thank you again for all the amazing people that came together to make last Sunday special. It was great to have volunteers from all the different sites working together from welcoming, to worship leading, to serving food for everyone. And thank you to everyone who came to Bearspaw to worship together!

This Sunday, at Bearspaw (and Sept 22 at Bowridge and Westhills sites) we’re starting a new series on the books of Ezra & Nehemiah that will take us through September and October. We’re calling it Rebuild: Past Faithfulness, Future Hope.

This series will examine two historical books of the Old Testament where the Jewish people have been released from a second exile (this time from Babylon) and find themselves back in the promised land. They then have to figure out how to rebuild their lives, their cities, their temple to the LORD, and to move forward with hope.

While we are not in the same situation as the ancient Jewish people - we’re not coming back from exile, or needing to rebuild a temple to worship in - there are modern day principles and wisdom we can learn from ancient texts that apply to our individual lives, as well as to our life as a church family.

Moving forward as a church requires remembering the past and God’s faithfulness so that we can look forward with hope to the future that God is preparing for us. It means that we need to address and name some of the things that will keep us from moving forward as a church; to honour, remember, and release the things from our past that may hinder us in the journey.

We will find modern day parallels in the experience of Ezra and Nehemiah that will serve us well: the need to assess the current situation, rally the people, equip and empower them, and celebrate the progress. These texts will encourage and challenge us as we seek after the Lord together and I, for one, am really looking forward to working through these scriptures with you.

If you’re a keener and want to get a head start on this series, may I recommend reading through these two books a few times throughout our series (they’re really quite manageable reads)? You can also check out the books of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi - who happened to be the prophets who were prophesying during this time period in Israel’s history; their writing helps fill in some of the details that the historical books of Ezra and Nehemiah might overlook.

Looking forward to our time in this series!

Stafford

P.S don’t forget that each site is having their kick off weekend immediately following the service!