Getting to Know You

Wow. Today church was awesome. Do you know why it was awesome? Because there were so many people there that I didn't know! Now I realize that for most people that might be intimidating and not welcoming but let me give you a little back story. We go to a small church in Westlake. My husband is the Director for Student Ministries. For the past year and a half I've been a greeter, which means that I usually meet all of the new people as soon as I spot them walking up. There have been Sundays in the past that the only people in attendance were people that were directly involved in the service (pastor, sound guy, set up crew, etc.) Flash forward to now.

It is awesome that there were so many people that I didn't know because that is what we've been praying for. For our church to grow! Not just to have a certain number of people in the seats but to have a greater opportunity to share with more and more people the truth about Jesus. To teach people who haven't heard the whole story of our Lord and to encourage and teach those who have! Our church has been doing tons of outreach to let more people know about Redeemer Church. I missed a month of Sundays right after they "relaunched" the church since I had Eva. Also the first Sunday I was back I did youth and last Sunday my parents were there. All of this added up to me looking around this morning and realizing that there were a lot of new faces. I love new faces! Since I had a baby in tow (translation: my crying baby had to literally be worn on my body in a sling and soothed) I didn't get to meet every new person but I did talk to a few families. It was also amazing to look around and see that almost every chair was full this Sunday. Oh, except for the 5 chairs next to me. Don't you love to be the one person sitting by yourself in a room full of people? I wasn't offended though since I sat in a back corner so that I could easily escape when Eva started to scream - which she did. So, wow. Today was truly a picture of how our prayers are being answered. I continually pray that each week there would be at least one new person that Redeemer can reach out to and today my prayers were answered in abundance. I believe that it wasn't our efforts alone that brought people to Redeemer this morning, it was the work of our faithful Lord. Praise God!