2022 has been a difficult year for Indelible Grace Church. We’ve gone through a great deal of turmoil and experienced some significant losses. Many of us have experienced the gamut of emotions in light of the troubles we’ve seen - sadness, anger, grief, discouragement, disappointment, relief, resignation, and more. We’ve had good reasons to feel those things, and some of us still need to process the things we’ve been through.
In this liminal season there’s a tendency to either dwell on the past with regret or look to the future with dread and anxiety. But we believe that IGC belongs to God and is shepherded by Jesus. And although he, too, is grieved by what we’ve experienced, we trust that he is present in our troubles and will redeem every painful moment in our history. Therefore, we have confidence that The Lord will use everything that has happened for our good, and that everything that happens in the next season will be with his good hand upon us.
During the summer we spent several weeks looking at Isaiah 42:1-10. The sermon series was an extended meditation on the person of Jesus, his ministry to the world, and his care for the church. In the final sermon in the series, I summarized one of the themes in the passage:
“Jesus is the Servant in this passage. He carries out his mission to make things right - for the people of God - and ultimately the world. There are two images we’re given in the beginning of the passage: the bruised reed and the smoldering wick. These are images of a people who are barely hanging on - through their own sin and rebellion, and also from the trauma of all that life has thrown at them. The Servant notices the reed and the wick and - with great love and tenderness and compassion - he mends and restores the bruised reed; he cups his hands around the smoldering wick to protect it and blows life into it so that it will burn with a bright fire once again.
“The servant in this passage is committed to his ministry. Jesus is the covenant of God for the people of God. We are defined by the covenant - the gospel. And we are equipped by God to do ministry.
“In these verses God says that he will do new things - in our lives and in this church. And he will do it for his glory, for his name’s sake, and for his reputation - because his glory is the most important thing in the universe. And our healing and our rebuilding and everything we do as a church should point back to God and be a testament to his goodness and wisdom and power.”
This is what we always want to be: a church that points the world to Jesus and testifies of the power of the Gospel. No matter what happens in the church and to the church, we must faithfully carry out the mission that has been given to us.
We’ve tried our best to do that this year. And though the grief we've experienced is real and valid, there is also much for us to be thankful for and celebrate. Among other things - we moved back indoors for our Sunday services, members were inducted, a girls discipleship group began, we had our first ever day of fasting and prayer, an interim pastor joined our staff, much of the church participated in a church-wide bible study in the book of Nehemiah, the Sunday morning prayer hour was restarted, we began a search for a new lead pastor, members stepped up to serve the church. And most importantly, Jesus was worshiped.
A bruised reed Jesus did not break. A faintly burning wick he did not snuff out.
And we can look back on this past year with gratitude for his faithfulness and for what he has done at IGC.
Pastor Wade