Today as I write this article I am reminded of the name of our newsletter, “the Encourager.” When I came to Eastmont thirty years ago we called it “the Informant” (Arnold Fuller stills calls it that). When I think of that name, it just says to me, ‘information,’ but Encour- ager speaks to being encouraged. It’s true that we provide important information to our church about the activities and ministries that are available to you, but we also want to encourage you and that is really the main purpose of this article (generally written by the pastor).
Today I want to encourage each of us about a couple of issues of importance. The first is, let us always be mindful that we are and should always want to be a friendly church. Sometimes we are looking so forward to seeing our friends that we overlook those we don’t know or we don’t know well. In doing so, we have probably neglected to greet a guest or a newcomer and we never want to do that. My encouragement is to speak to everyone you meet (and not just the ‘meet and greet’ during worship) and introduce yourself and don’t be embarrassed if you find out they have been a member here longer than you.
Secondly, more than just being a friendly church, I want us to be known as a praying church. That means more than just attending prayer meetings, praying for those on our prayer sheet or for the needs of those in our LifeGroups. I want us all, including myself, to be people of prayer.
Jesus says in Matthew 7:7, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” We are to pray until God answers that prayer. We need to pray for our pastor search committee and our prospective pastor until God answers our prayers and he is here (writing this article instead of me). Once he is here then we continue praying even more if possible.
Let’s encourage one another by meeting, greeting and praying for one another! Let us be the church that truly cares about one another and wants to serve our Lord together!