Pastors Garage
December 14, 2023
Well how goes the battle? This week, for me at least, is nothing short of
crazy busy. I have no less than two separate events going on every single
day, let alone the other daily or weekly tasks that one should be
endeavouring to accomplish! I think, in an effort to protect the week
leading up to Christmas from getting too busy, everyone planned things for
the prior one making it crazy busy!
This Saturday evening will be our church’s Christmas celebration with a
banquet and concert with Curtis and Bonnie Szakacs and family. Please make
every effort to attend and please please use this event as an opportunity
to invite someone along! The Good News will be shared!!!! Doors open at
5:30, supper at 6, concert at 7.
On Sunday morning we will be celebrating our children! The Sunday School
will be putting on their Christmas program, and we will be having a
dedication for the children of JJ and Yvette Annandale!
Christmas eve there will be two services, in the morning Janelle Oshowy
will be sharing her story, and at 7pm will be our annual candlelight
Christmas eve service!
Guys, don’t forget about our men’s retreat, Jan 12-14 at Kenosee Lake Bible
Camp. For more info or to register please contact either Kevin
Speidelsbach or Lowell Oshowy!
As we look towards the new year, we will be starting it off with having a
very different style of service for the first number of Sunday’s! Over the
last few weeks I have been challenged through a number of circumstances to
do a sermon series on the basics of Christianity! While I was pondering on
how that would look my mind went to a series of video’s pastor Dave and
myself did during the height of Covid, when we weren’t allowed to have
in-person services, called Realignment! At that time both of us were
feeling that so much craziness was going on, and we needed to do a series
on the basics to get us as a church back on track or at least to ground us!
Now here we are three years later and, while much of the craziness of Covid
is in our rear view mirror, I still wonder if we are a bit off track at
times.
My thoughts go to what we had entitled that series, Realignment. In course
navigation even the slightest variance off course, while initially not
seeming serious, will eventually lead to serious problems if not constantly
assessed and corrected. If a plane, ship, or satellite is even a fraction
of a degree off course, within the first few minutes the problem is hardly
noticeable, but many hours later, if not addressed and corrected, there
will be serious consequences when they try to arrive at their intended
destination. In respect to an automobile, the front end alignment needs to
be checked periodically just to make sure there are no worn or damaged
parts. Otherwise premature tire wear will occur costing a lot more in the
end, not to mention decreased efficiency and fuel mileage. Churches, and
people for that matter, are no different! Every once and awhile it is
important to take a good, hard, long look at why we do what we do, what we
are doing, and where we are headed to make sure we are still on course!
Over the last few days I have re-watched a number of those videos, and I
see no need to reinvent the wheel as they were pretty well done and to the
point! They were designed to be done in a small group setting and it was
our intention to continue to use them in the years to come with new
believers or members as well. There are 10 videos and each video is
approximately 25 minutes long with a few group discussion questions
throughout. I think there would be huge value in us going through them as a
church body to start out the new year so starting on the morning of New
Years eve we will watch the first video together called Situation. This
will likely carry on until the end of February. If anyone misses a Sunday
they can all be accessed on our website, grenfellap.com so that we can all
stay together on this journey!
Somebody much smarter than I once said “The main thing is to keep the main
thing, the main thing!” In this day and age it is very easy to get
distracted and off track. Let us as a church take this season and make it a
priority to make sure we are seeking to serve and honour our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ to the best of our abilities! *“Study to shew thyself
approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing
the word of truth!”* 2 Timothy 2:15
Blessing,
Pastor Mike