DISCLAIMER: This text is not a verbatim transcript. Communication Access Real Time Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication credibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. >> Thank you for joining us today. We want to let you know about a few items of interest. First, go to our website, firstcolonychurch.org, and go there often. You'll find links to our worship services, Bible study options, online giving, and our podcast "Anchor Point." You can also download our church app. Just search for First Colony Church of Christ in the App Store or on Google Play. The app is a great resource where you can stay connected to First Colony Church. Thank you for joining us today. we are glad you're here. >> Richard: Good morning, church. I was looking at the wrong clock, I guess. Let's all stand together and worship God. He a faithful, amen. ♫ "All Because Of Jesus" >> Richard: That's the truth, amen, it's all because of Jesus that we are alive. He is the way. He is the truth. He is the life. No one gets to the father but through the Lord Jesus. ♫ "The Way" ♫ >> Richard: Why don't we all be seated today, church, as we all prepare to take communion. >> Thank you, Richard. Good morning, church. My name is Pete Edgmon and this is my wife, Missy. It is our privilege today to lead you in celebrating the Lord's supper. Bow with me as we pray for the bread and the cup. Holy Father in heaven, how great is your name? You are the great and everlasting God, creator of ends of the earth, how abundant are your mercies to us, oh Lord. Father, help us to cast aside our daily troubles from this world and our thoughts to consider the sacrifice Jesus made for all of us. Father, in the scriptures from the gos tell of Luke, it saying no one lights a lamp and places it in a basket, instead, it is placed on a stand where its light can be seen by all that enter the house. May we have this bright light that radiates through Jesus Christ. Bless this bread that represents Jesus' broken body on the cup and bless this cup that represents his precious bloodshed. Let's take these emblems in remembrance of him in Jesus' holy and almighty name. Amen. Let us partake together. >> I'll be reading from John 11:21-27 From the New Living Translation. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.” Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?” “Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.” ♫ "Do It Again" ♫ >> Shane: Amen. Amen. Amen indeed. Well, as we pray over our offering, I want to let you know, you can give online, text to give, give in the room at the offering boxes at the back there. Thank you for the way you come together as a church, as a church family to make a bold difference for Jesus in the world. Let's pray over our offering as we commit this to God. Our Father in heaven, we acknowledge you are the greatest giver. Jesus is the greatest gift ever given as we soak in that knowledge that Jesus is such a great gift to us, God. We want to become generous givers and like Jesus in that way that he gave to us. We pray that this offering will be used to advance the good news message about Jesus all around the world, God, and we pray this in the name of king Jesus. >> Good morning, everyone. My name is Noah, I'm Joel's intern for this summer and today he gave me the opportunity to do today's object lesson. I really want to talk about faith because there is a lot of crazy things going on and we just have to have faith, but to show this, I asked Anna Lynn to help me out here. Can you come up and help me out here. She is going to need to trust me. She's going to have to have faith that I'm probably not going to hurt her. No. So Joel said I could this but I couldn't use fire, so whatever. But I got the next best thing. I got water. So Anna Lynn, do you rust me? [ Laughter ] >> All right. So I need you to put your arms out like this as if you're going to karate chop someone and I have these two cups here and I'm going to fill these cups up with water. Again, I have to use a little bit of water because I'm not supposed to flood the stage either. There we go and there we go. Not too much water. I'm going to take this cup right here and I'm going to put it on top of my head. Anna Lynn, could you close our eyes for me and could you do the same. Thank you. So I'm going to ask you to turn around once. All right and you can open up your eyes now. I'm going to be counting to three. Guys, I need your help. Guys, on the count of three we're going to take our cups and we're going to flip them upside down. I hope you brought a change of clothes. You got this. You just have to trust me. Guys, count with me, one, two, three. Thank you very much. All right. You can go back to your seat, Anna Lynn. Very good. First service that didn't go as planned. All right. So she was willing to put her trust in me and do something that sounded crazy and the verse I have today is from 2 Corinthians 5:7 saying that we walk by faith, not by sight. Paul wrote Corinthians and he went all over the place preaching the gospel. He went to jail for it. He wasn't caring what was happening to him and looking at the things outside, but instead he kept his eyes on Jesus, on the hope we have in him. It might have locked crazy -- looked crazy. Walk by faith, not by sight. All right. Thank you. >> We're a title one school so 65% of our kids are in pre-reduced lunch so they don't have a lot of support from home. When coop first Colony gives that, it helps. >> Coming from a school that is economically disadvantaged and to see the reaction on not only the teachers' faces, but the students' faces. Something as simply as receiving materials or supplies, just seeing the kids' reaction, I've got a pencil or a pair of scissors, it is a big, huge help. >> We very much appreciate the support the church has the given us over and over again. We feel blessed. Some of the things you did for the campus is during star week when teachers are stressed is provide kas roles or gift cards for sonic. >> One thing I really appreciate about the church that comes and supports us is that they're truly a part of our community. To know that you are looking out for us and that you care for us, whether it's just the little things of providing goodies at birthday bash or bringing supplies for those who may not have them or extra things to the classrooms, it means more. >> To learn more about joining the Holley team, visit online or visit us on Sunday mornings. >> Shane: This milling is such a great effort. Pick up a list of items in the lobby if you turn left, you will find some apples with the list of items or you can go online or donate to the Amazon wish list. We want everyone to get involved. We're going to release the kids. Grades one through five Ms. Denel is there. Parents, if you have not checked your kids in, there is auto kiosk and we ask that you do that. To our guests, thank you so much for being with us. If you would fill out that Q.R. code, you can do that digital or there are also cards in the room. Guests, we would love to have more information how to serve and pray for you how we can help you get connected. If you would come to our new here, start here room across the lobby, we would love to answer questions, a brief hello, we have a gift for you as well so you can do that. Okay. Everyone watching online as well, you can say hi in the chat room and we would love to get to know you better and you can just do that. Let's everybody stand and have a time of fellowship greeting now. [Indistinct chatter] ♫ "Only King Forever" ♫ >> Richard: You know what, I just messed up that whole song for us. They department be, I did. >> We could have just faked it, Richard. >> Richard: Sorry, from the top. We'll take it a little faster. ♫ "Only King Forever" ♫ >> Richard: Yes, church. Thank you for your worship today. He is exalted today. You may be seated. >> Ronnie: Fantastic. Thank you so much, Richard and team. We do appreciate it. Good morning, everybody. Glad to see you today. Welcome to our second service here at the First Colony Church of Christ. Glad to have you in the room and the many of you who are watching online, we welcome you to this worship experience as well. I do have some folks I'd like to recognize here at the outset, Chris and Jean Millunzi. Where are you would you please stand? There you are. Welcome to these fine new members and to our church family. There they are. They recently moved here from California. Welcome. And then Amber Cook was recently baptized. Where are you? There she is right there. There you are. We celebrate with Amber and her family today. We are in a new series from the book of Acts which chronicles the growth of early Christianity. The title of today's message is knowing God and making him known from Acts 17. If you have your Bible or that digital Bible, please be turning to Acts 17. Come with me, please, to the city of athens, Greece. The church started in Jerusalem, but it's grown and it's expanded and it's now in Europe. It's in Europe of all places. And now it's in Athens, the hub of intellectualism, even with the rise of Rome, Athens was still an intellectual hub, think of Harvard, Yale, Oxford Cambridge, Rice, and another other think tankses all together right there in Athens. It was the land of philosophers, Plato, Aristotle, sock ra tooes. Here he is faced with consternation because he sees a city so in need of God. It is full of idoltry. Let me ask you, what do you see when you see something in culture amiss? Are you the kind of person who rants and raves and gets mad about it or are you the kind of person who prays over it and says as a believer, what might I do to bring some sort of redemption to this situation? How might I not just be hateful, but how might I be helpful? So the apostle Paul is here in Athens and he's invited to actually give a present at Mars hill at the Ariapogos, leading center. Acts 17:16-34 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you. Point number one is just Knowing God And we're -- I can say with great certainty, you are going to hear a really good sermon today. You know how I know this? I'm going to read it to you. I'm going to read the apostle Paul's sermon to you from Athens, Greece. And let me put some words up here on the screen. You can go ahead and write those down. He's about to explain to you this unknown God and here are some features of this unknown God: Creator Commander Sustainer Redeemer Judge So he starts his message and he says this, verse 24: “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. You look around and you would see one temple after another. He says, do you think you could actually build a facility that could contain the one true living God? You can't build a temple big enough to contain the living God. And the living God, And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. Where does your life come from? Answer: God. Where does your breath come from? Answer: God. In the past minute, you drew about 18 breaths of air. Have you been counting. This as up to 25,000 breaths in the past 24 hours. If you are 40 years old, you've gulped in more than 365 million breaths of air and every single one was a gift from God. Have we ever paused to thank God for the very air that we breathe. He gives you all things. You have life and breath, it is all things. It is a gift from this God that is bigger, better, more generous than you have ever dreamed and he is not served by human hands, as though he needs something. I've said to you many times, God doesn't need me or you, but he chooses to need me or you and he graciously welcomes us. When my son was small, he wanted to help me wash the car and I could get it done faster on my own, but it was fun to do it together. I don't read a lot of poetry, but there is a poem called the lanyard by billy Collins. You should watch it sometime. Watch him read the poem. Not now. Don't look at it now. I think it is a humorous poem. It talks about how when he was a kid and goes to summer camp and he weaves this cheep lanyard, a red plastic thread and a white plastic thread and he weaves this cheap little lanyard at summer camp that a counselor helped him to do and he gave it to his mom and he thinks about his mom as a kid, she gave me life and nursed me in so many sick rooms and lifted soons of medicine to my lips, led me out into the airy light and taught me to walk and swim and I in turn gave her a lanyard. She gave me clothing and education and I said, here is your lanyard. She said here is a beating heart and a body and strong legs and loans and I said, here is your cheap summer camp lanyard. And he said, though that as he got older he finally made this admission that he was as wrong as he could have been when "I was sure as a boy could be that this useless, worthless thing I wove out of boredom would be enough to make my mom and I even." You did all that, I gave you this cheap little summer camp lanyard, we're good, we're even. Paul says, do you have an idea, any idea how good and grand this God is? You can't repay him. There is no way you could ever repay him. We don't meet his needs, he meets ours. Verse 26: From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. In other words, he's not disengaged. He's not distant. He's actually involved. And no nation or race is superior because God made us all from one common ancestor. Why did God do all this? Verse 27: God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. He says, this God is accessible. This God cares. He's actually concerned about you. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.' And As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.' “Therefore since we are God's Offspring -- by creation, all of us belong to God, by redemption, we can become his children -- we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. Let me just say, never think that the one true living God who reveals himself in creation in Jesus and in the scripture s needs us to manage his image. We're made in God's image. We should not make him in ours. He reveals himself to us and we're called to follow and to worship. Can you imagine me walking into the Louvre with a pallet of paint and a brush and say, Ronnie, why are you going to the Louvre? I'm going to improve the Mona Lisa. I'm going to walk into these master pieces and make them better. You don't touch-up a master piece. No, you go and appreciate that master piece and the living God is a master piece to be adored and worshiped and followed. And listen, this big God who is bigger than you thought, who is higher than you can imagine, he wants your fellowship, he wants a connection, he wants a relationship with you. Verse 30: In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. It turn and follow him. He has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he had appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” Paul says the resurrection is proof of this big, grand, good, generous God to whom we are accountable. The resurrection is the proof because that's not how the world works. The world decays, the world dies, but the resurrection is completely contrary to how things work. And without the resurrection, we just sort of debate philosophies, don't we? Well, I think this, I think that. But if indeed Jesus has been raised from the dead, Christianity is true. I mean, I like it, I mean, I would agree with it, I may mock it and sneer at it. If you're not yet a believer I would say this: Have you really come to grips with and have you evaluated the evidence for the resurrection? Because it's there. Well, how do people react to this sermon? Verse 32: When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some Of them sneered, mocked. Early in Acts 17, they called Paul a babbler, a want-to-be intellectual, a pseudo intellectual. So when they heard about the resurrection, some sneered. Others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 33 At that, Paul left the Council. Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others. Okay. There's Paul's sermon about the greatness of God, the reaction to it. Let's think for just a moment, though, about making God known and maybe drawing two or three observations from the way Paul interacted with his culture. Okay. Here's the first observation I would make that, like Paul, we need to anticipate some collisions with our culture. There are going to be some collisions. You don't need to be shocked by that and you don't need to be discouraged by that. You do know over the last 30 to 35 years we've gone from a Christian-positive culture through a Christian-neutral culture to actually now a Christian-negative culture. If you tell someone you are a Bible-believing Christian, there are a lot of people who would think you are what's wrong with the world. Do we really expect everyone to applaud the Christian message? The story of grace, the the story of repentance and Christian morality. Expect collision, expect pushback. But don't just respond with hatred. And don't just respond with contempt as believers ask, how can I maybe be helpful here or redemp active here or how can I as a believer function as a creative minority. That leads to the second thing, be willing to engage in discussions. Be willing to engage with the discussions both in a Christian community, both in here and out there. About faith. You know, even someone coming to the Christian faith, they're not fully mature. They're going to have lots of questions and we want to dialog and help, but someone who has not yet come to faith, be willing to engage in discussions with them -- let me say that again, engage in discussions like you can. Engage in discussions where you are. You know, sometimes in the Bible, for example, like Phillip who just encountered Jesus, you know how he engaged in discussions, he said, just come and see, just come with me and see. Sometimes we engage with someone and say, just listen to this podcast, read this book. Watch this and think it through. Or maybe you just give your own personal testimony like John 9 where the guy said, I cannot answer all your questions. Here is what I know. I was blind and now I see. But, a lot of you, you're really smart, you're very articulate. You have access to a number of resources and you could actually be like a Paul. And engage with others respectfully but on a deeper level and in our culture with which we live now which is post-modern thinking which is the thinking there is no ultimate truth, just your truth and my truth. To be able to engage our culture like that, here's what I'm not saying. I'm not saying how someone responds to Jesus totally depends on you. It's more about their openness to the Holy Spirit than it is your eloquence. But let's engage, you know, anticipate collisions. Engage discussions. Then thirdly, expect various reactions. Just like the apostle Paul, some people mocked him. Listen, don't be offended when unbelievers mock you. It's -- it goes with the territory. There will be others who will say, that's interesting, but let me think about it for a while. And then other sothers, they'll believe. Their hearts will be open. And because you were willing to engage, your words, your presence nurtured their soul, warmed their hearts and the Holy Spirit had an opportunity to work. Now, before I tie a bow here, I want to just talk to you for a moment about the privilege it is that we have to know the living God and may I just quickly highlight five blessings that as a believer, as a Christian, we treasure these blessings. First of all, those who know God, we have energy for God. And that's such a joy and a privilege. We see something that's amiss and in the power of the Holy Spirit, maybe we're able to bring ministry there. Like Jeremiah said, serving the Lord is like a fire in my bones. It is a joy, it is a privilege. Secondly, those who know God, we can have high thoughts of God. Why? Because we're privileged to have access tot scriptures, as God has revealed his thoughts and nature to us. We know he's no small God. He's bigger, grander, better, more generous than we can imagine. Those who know God, we can have great boldness for God. Why? We would rather offend the king than offend God. We know who we are and where we stand and where we're going. We live and breathe for an audience of one. Those who know God, we can rest in his care. He is a good, good father. And the Bible says so clearly: Cast your cares on him because he cares for you. My friends, you will never ever be in a place where price's love cannot find you and nurture you. You need not fear the end of your story because Jesus writes the end of your story and your story has no end. You will never ever face anything that God's power and strength cannot see you through. Oh my. We rest in the care of God and those who know God, we can have great love for God's people. Not always easy, but we can have great love for God's people. Why? Because we're taking the love of God and passing it on to another. There is a look at the living God. Better, deeper, grander, more generous than you can imagine. The gospel in its simplicity is he sent his son for us. He died a particularly type of death for our sins. He was raised to life again and that resurrection validates this story. And he offers forgiveness and eternal life to all who repent and trust and follow him. All right, everybody. Let me take a few moments here and talk to you about something else. Allow me to speak to you actually about my future here as your senior minister in this church. I turn 65 in about three months and several years ago, actually before I turned 60 I went to our elder board and said, look, I'm not getting any younger and time is not moving any slower. And life is full of transition s We need to face those transitions and face them in a timely and appropriate way. I said, I want to know what you're thinking. They said, Ronnie, we want you to retire right here and they've been very supportive and helpful. Out of those conversations with our elder board, we decided on an official retirement date towards the end of 2024. You're asking, that's a couple of years down the line. Why are you tell us that now? Because of the transition model, of the succession model that we will use. It's called the overlap model. It is the healthiest and most seamless model if a church can do it. I'll explain it in a few moments now. The search for the next senior minister in our church starts immediately. Let me say that again, the search for the next senior minister in our church begins immediately. I believe we're prepared. I believe we're tactically ready. This is a search process. It needs to be out in the open. Everybody needs to know that it's happening. It needs to be covered in prayer and as transparent as possible. We do covet your prayers. We want you to know what's coming in the future to the degree we plan the future. We plan in pencil, not pen, leaving room for God's leading, but we do plan. I am completely on board with this. No one is cheering this on more than me. Okay. Again, I want to say to the elder board and I formalized the transition years ago. The timing is just right. I'm ready to hand off the baton and the responsibilities of being the senior minister in a sizeable church. And it is also time -- it is also time -- for a younger leader who has more energy, new vision, fresh ideas to lead a new season and generation. And on this side of the pandemic shutdowns, this is such a timely opportunity to rebuild with some freshness and I am all for it. Churches are not resuming, they are rebuilding. And I view this timing as a gift. By the way, let me just tell you, I am so proud of you, grateful for you, both here in the room, first service in the room. To those of you with us online, and we have hundreds of people who are with us online. They're engaged, they're supportive. Did you know that last year, 2021, was actually our second-most generous year in our church history. That just says so much about you and the muscle tone of who you are. I'm surely grateful for that, but this is such a timely and appropriate transition. Again, no one is cheering this on more than me. So how will this be done? Let me put something here on the screen. It's called the overlap model. I am the upper arrow. So I'm here now and at some point a new senior minister would come in and we would overlap for a time. That person comes in, is onboarded. We work together for a period of time. And then that person assumes the lead role and I will give myself to some ministries and initiatives that I really think I can bring some juice to in my last stage of the ministry here. Now, there are two words that are associated with this overlap model and both words are really, really important. Here is the first one, it is the word certainty, certainty. We're doing this. Okay. Starting this. And the second word is flexibility. Why flexibility? These senior minister searches take time. They just do. They take longer often than what you think. There's going to be a high degree of volunteer involvement. Think a year, okay. Could be longer. Could be shorter. I hope it is, but it's absolutely unpredictable. So we have to be flexible. So when, when will that new senior minister be hired? That is the -- the when question cannot be answered with any degree of specificity, but there is a plan. There is a process. There are people who have been charged to work that process. But it is unknown how long the process will take. There is no timetable. Can you imagine some young man coming up to you saying, hey, great news, I'm getting married next March 15. Great. Who is the wonderful girl? I have no idea. Haven't met her yet. You can't just artificially pick a date out there. You have to go through the process. Bottom line, for the foreseeable future, you have me. I am here. I am all in. I am fully engaged. I plan to finish strong. I am not some lame duck looking for the path of easiest resistance or buying my time. That's not in my DNA. I will do my best to see this through. I have a deep and abiding confidence in our administrative board of elders, both those who served in the past, those who serve in the present, who will oversee this process and make the final decision on the next senior minister for this church. And I have a deep and abiing confidence in our task force search committee who will assist them. All right. You guys will -- Ronnie, once you eventually retire, retire, what will you and Martha do? Well, as long as we have good health, we'll certainly not retire from being active and serving the Lord. We plan to always be a part of a local church and we plan to do that right here. This is home. You're our home church weapon we plan to be right here serving with you. Our children are here. Our children-in-law are here. We have grandchildren -- all of our grandchildren are here. We've got grandchildren in the student ministry. We've got grandchildren in the children's ministry. We even have a little 2-year-old granddaughter who is in the nursery from time to time. But transitions in life are inevitable. So let's make them as healthy as possible. I'm jazzed about this. I'm optimistic about it. And I think it's just so timely. One more thing. This church does not function at the whims of the senior minister. The senior minister is charged to push forward and bring energy, but within certain boundaries, within the boundaries of our detrimental statements that are rooted in scripture. Within the boundaries of our church values. And within the boundaries of the decisions by the elders of this church. So, my friends, we need you and I ask for your support, your prayers, your buy-in, and thank you for your attention. Robert Beasely, would you come up here now and let me turn this over to you. >> Thank you, Ronnie. On behalf of the elders at First Colony Church, we wanted to follow Ronnie's announcement with some words of encouragement and exertation. First of all, we have so much to be thankful here at the First Colony Church. If you look at all the ways God has provided for this church over the past 37 years. In this church, you have been so much of a blessing through this community and throughout the world. Just as God has provided for us for the past 37 years, he will provide generously and passionately in the future. And we thank God and praise God for the faithful, powerful, effective ministry of Ronnie Norman for over three decades. It's impossible to count the lives and generations he is -- and Martha have given us. And listening to and being led by the spirit, those will continue in the future. And the elders have bathed this and are bathing this and will continue to bathe this whole process and prayer and that's why we're asking you to begin now to just bathe this whole process and every aspect to this transition in prayer. Part of this transition process is the formation of a search committee dedicated to methodically researching and interviewing candidates and to run a thoughtful high-quality transition process and the search committee will make recommendations to the administrative board of elders. This committee will be chaired by Charlie On-Stead and others. You're welcome to make suggestions for candidates and on the order of worship there is a place there elderslist@First Colony Church.org. And those will be relayed to the search committee. As Ronnie said, we have no deadline. Processing and listening to God and honoring him is our focus. We know that the same God that brought Ronnie and Martha to us at the formation of this church 30 years ago will bring the right people to us at the right time. This church is you and me, all of us, and all of us were bought by the precious love of Jesus and all of us are responsible to Him and one another to do our part that the church of Jesus may grow and be built up in love. As Paul said in Ephesians 4. From our head, this body is joined and held together by every supporting ligament and from Jesus we grow and are built up and love as each of us does his part. We're excited about the future and we embrace this time with gratitude for what kind of God loves us and cares for us? And we ask him for his faithful and generous provision going forward. As Ephesians said again, God is able to do far more abundantly than we can imagine and through him be the glory of the church through Christ Jesus. Amen. One of our elders is going to lead us in prayer. >> Let's pray. God, we come before you with so much to be thankful for. We've been extremely blessed by the way Ronnie and Martha have faithfully led, stewarded, pastored, and prayed for our church here at First Colony Church. We thank you for leading the couple to us years ago that was committed to leading the church rooted in truth with the highest regard for authority and future. We thank you for your focus on building a church focused on the needs of the broader body as well as the needs of the individual and the disciple journey we are on. Thank you for the picture the New Testament paints of local believers that gather regularly and commit to help each other follow Jesus. God, we know if we're not careful in these times, church can be something we order when we want it, where we want it and how we want it. The New Testament only knows of a type of discipleship of this family. Nothing brings the kingdom of God into a community like a local church. God, we know church is essential to Jesus and we ask that you continue to convict us of this. You gave all authority to Jesus and Jesus used that authority to establish a church. Jesus is the builder and he is the owner. The church belongs to him because he paid for it with his own blood. Jesus promised to build this church. It is his chosen instrument. There is no plan. This hasth potential to impact to change the world. It was and still is his idea, his passion, and his strategy. Because Jesus is behind the church, the church always has a future when he is behind it. We ask you to lead this minister process focused on future leadership that will continue to grow disciples that grows your church and expands your kingdom. It is in your son's name that we pray, amen. >> Shane: Here is what I know, church. God has been so faithful and good to this church. He has worked so powerfully since the beginning of this church. Jesus still reigns and is still the head of this church. We have nothing to fear and so much to look forward to as God does amazing things through this body. Here is what else I know. You're not going to remember anything I'm about to say in these announcements, but I need to run through them. Please go to our website and look to register for things like zoo camp, the women's fall retreat. Also take note that our Wednesday night programming is a little different as we have building renovations. There is no uplift or children's ministry. Take note of that. We have Bible classes for all ages at 9:45. If you didn't get a Bible class, we would love for you to have a Bible class. There is our online class at 12:30 so make sure you check that out if you're watching online. What will God do now and this week? Let's get ready to step into his mission as we go out those doors. Let's stand and sing one more song before we go. Let's stand, church. ♫ "Only King Forever" ♫ >> Richard: Thank you, church, for worshiping with us today. You are