Church Business Meeting
Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. Proverbs 16:3.
The Bramalea church family finally convened for the first time after our physical church closed last year, March, 2020. During the 3-hour meeting last week, different councils presented their strategic goals each one hoping our church will grow exponentially in terms of membership, community services, fellowship and evangelism and most of all, in our spiritual journey.
Budgets have been allocated and projects are now in place. God is always faithful. He had us covered last year even though some have lost jobs and been financially constrained. Praise God; the bag has not run empty.
In big meetings like this, different ministries are minimized to one-line descriptions of what the goals are but behind those one-liners are officers and members who have put their all out there to be able to accomplish God’s work that they have committed to partner God with. The hours each and everyone have put into are not visible during the seemingly long meeting in the evening after Sabbath. But God knows.
Let us be thankful for all the people, the ones who fill the gaps…those who feel they are contributing only a little but they’re getting the work done, and may have saved the day; just like the little hero of Haarlem, Hans, who by sticking his small finger right into the hole in the dike, staying there even in the cold of the night saved the town. He persevered until help came and the dike was finally repaired for good. Whatever little we have, when put in God’s hands, will accomplish much.
Let us be thankful for the leaders, the innovators, the planners and visionaries who toil till the wee hours, collaborating with others to ensure God’s work is going well; those who have committed their time, talents and resources for God’s cause. They are the bridges that unite the different ministries so the church will move in concerted efforts and more people may know Jesus; more will be brought to His feet.
Let us join hands with our Pastor, who had been working so hard to keep the church family together throughout this pandemic. Regardless of the number of people showing up on our zoom for Wednesdays, Vespers and Sabbath Days, you can be sure he is up there, preaching the Word, reaching even the unreached through the new virtual platform.
Let us continue to show our appreciation and encourage those working in front of their gadgets, eyes glued to their monitors when our services are on, earphones burning for hours during our meetings and learning all new things so our digital services will be one we can be humbly proud of and enable the Good News to spread farther than we imagined. The vigilance of the young minds in our congregation is surely admirable. God is good!
EG White has this to say in ‘That I May Know Him”, p.290
“Let us feel thankful that we have the privilege of committing our works to God. We are to remember that we are not pieces of inanimate mechanism, but intelligent beings, able to choose the right and refuse the wrong, with a clear conscience and a pure purpose. We are to aim at consistency in all our works.”
“As we labor let us ask God's help, realizing that this is the only thing that can keep our work free from selfishness.... Look upward with intense sincerity, for you need constant draughts of the refreshing air of heaven. We need to live in constant communion with our heavenly Father.... Perform your duties as if in the sight of a holy God.”
In the end, anything other than God’s plan carried out in God’s way and in God’s timing amounts to self-reliance. Let us depend on the guidance of the Holy Spirit when deciding how to proceed in any plan that is laid out by ministries, by the councils and by the church corporately; any other course of action won’t lead to the full and abundant life Jesus promised.
