I can remember waking up in my car in Alberta after stopping to sleep at a gas station on my first ever road trip across Canada. I stumbled out of my car, rubbed my eyes and looked up to see, for the first time, the majesty of the Rocky Mountains. I was puny, standing literally spell bound as my eyes tried to take it all in.
Nahum 1:5 says,
"The mountains quake before him".
Here I was in awe of some of God's greatest creations and yet it was just that - a
creation of God. Now I felt even more puny standing before an awesome God. Even as a spiritually confused young man, I could recognize the glory of a mighty God on display and it brought me to a place of worship and prayer.
So as we gather each Sunday for worship, what do we want to see happen? What's the point of our church? What is it that we want to see at Harvest Muskoka?
This past week at the HBC Pastor's Retreat in Orlando I was reminded again what it is that we are going for at HarvestMuskoka ... not just great ministries, not just great community, not just great music, not just great preaching (those are all good things for us to aim for but they are not our ultimate goal). Our ultimate goal at Harvest Muskoka needs to be to recognize and display
God's glory.
When Moses was called to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, he was scared at his own lack of abilities, power and leadership and faced the unimaginably difficult task of leading a rebellious, complaining and stubborn group of people. In Exodus 33 Moses was speaking with God about how difficult things were and he asked God for something.
He didn't ask to be a better speaker. He didn't ask to be a better leader. He didn't ask for better conditions or better followers. He asked for one thing:
"If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here ... Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?" (Exodus 33:15-16)
So what are we all about at Harvest Muskoka? What is it that will make us distinct from any other gathering of people? It is only the presence of God. It's not my preaching, Eric's guitar playing, our building or even the love we show each other ... if we are looking for earth shattering, window rattling, life changing Sundays where people are impacted, marriages are healed, prodigals come home and lives are changed forever - it only happens if God goes with us.
What makes a church distinct and powerful is God showing up in His glory - working and revealing Himself in spite of our limitations. What will make Harvest effective in Muskoka is His presence working and doing for us what we can't do for ourselves.
Our little brick gymnasium with uncomfortable chairs and snakes painted on the walls is the furthest thing from the splendour of the Rocky Mountains and yet when we seek God's manifest presence his glory is revealed.
So as we move forward may our church be a place:
- where there is expectant prayer before, during and after the service for God's healing and working in lives.
- where people hear authoritative preaching from the Word and God reaches into their hearts and they leave changed.
- where there is passionate and expressive worship with voices loud, hands raised, hearts moved and Jesus' Name lifted high.
- where people are being saved from every walk of life.
- where love abounds, forgiveness flows freely, and needs are met.
- where people gather in small groups in relationships of grace and truth to stir up, spur on and support the weight of walking with God.
- where leadership actually leads ... and listens, learns and loves people while strongly and passionately seeking God's will.
- where gratitude and generousity overflows and the poor, the alien, the imprisoned, the widow and the orphan are cared for and never neglected.
- where more people are trained and on mission.
... and where all of these are seen, known, felt and celebrated by everyone who comes into contact with Harvest Muskoka ... where it is obvious that God is present and at work ... and people experience more of God's manifest presence as
God's glory comes whenever we gather!
In the grip of His grace,
Kaj