Why I love the Sanctuary community

We had an amazing Sunday night service. I, of course, can't put it into words, but I'll try.

Community Prayer: Sondra Lemmon did a wonderful job of leading us in prayer. For those of you who've never come to Sanctuary, every Sunday night we take time out to lift each other up in prayer. A lay leader usually guides the time. We start off just noting reasons to thank God. And then we bring prayer requests to the community. It's pretty simple. People raise their hand. The leader calls on them, and then they give their request. The leader writes it all down and encompasses all of it in prayer at the end. It sounds simple, but because God is present and active, it is very powerful.

God's Truth and God's Grace: We had a tough passage to wrestle with on Sunday night--Matthew 19:1-12. The topic was divorce, and as we all know, this topic hits many of us. Because of the value of God's word and the value of God's grace we were able to talk about how God hates divorce, but we could also talk about how God longs for restoration for all of us. We have a community that values grace and truth--a beautiful thing.

A safe place to be honest: After the teaching time we had a Q and A time regarding the topic of divorce. As you can imagine the questions were complex and laced with emotion. Most powerfully, I was so pleased to see young and old contribute to the discussion and watch family members and friends lovingly minister to each other with words and other acts of kindness while we discussed the questions. After the Q and A we had everyone whose families had gone through divorce stand and we prayed for all those affected. It was very powerful. I will blog on some of the questions this week.

A safe place to worship: Though we had a lot of our young people gone on a mission trip, and though our band was a bit smaller, we worshiped loud and strong. I love hearing the people at sing at Sanctuary, and I love the freedom we have to worship. A big thanks to Ryan and Jordan for their wonderful leadership.

I often say to our leadership team something like, "We are a part of something you could never get at Barnes and Noble." The community of God gathered is a mysterious and powerful thing, and it's the best part of my week.

Comments

[passionate]

i'm sorry that i missed this service!

it was CR's handling of the topic of divorce that won me over to being a member.

i had previously been taught that divorce was practically the unpardonable sin. however, after hearing pastor phil break passages down, incorporate culture/history & include God's consistant redemptive love, i was a blubbering heap of emotional restoration!

not that i'd ever been divorced, but i had trouble reconciling some things about God & where loved ones of mine stood with Him.

i'm sure that sanctuary followed in this vein, & it's necessary for everyone to hear it again & again!

[Linda]

Passionate,
I came away from the service with less tolerance of divorce than before. I think the kids usually get hurt more from divorce than the parents.

During Q and A one of the kids was talking about hardly ever seeing his father. Personally, in most cases I think parents should put their kids first, make the best of things, and stay together until their kids leave home. Then after their last kid leaves home they can split - if they still want to.

Hey Brad,
Were you going to blog on the other questions?

[passionate]

Linda -

I agree that divorce is a horrible thing, & my opinion of how devastating it can be to a family hasn't changed.

However, it's my understanding of God's goodness & mercy regarding the subject that was encouraging to me.

I no longer believe that divorcees are toss aways from God's plan. I understand that though it's not His perfect plan for a marriage to disolve, one can still walk with God & grow into His plan B.

[Linda]

Passionate,
I agree with what you've written, especially when applied to a divorce that's in the past. However, I was also thinking about people contemplating divorce. I think there are a lot of couples who talk about divorce, especially when they get into fights with their spouses. In these cases, I think people really need to think about what they are doing to their kids. Divorce is way different when there are kids under 18 involved.