Thank you!

As 2022 draws to a close and many of our weekly ministries begin to conclude for the year, I want to take a moment to thank everyone who has served in ministry across our church throughout the year. There are hundreds and hundreds of people who make Christ Church happen every week—there are people serving in Connect Teams, as Growth Group Leaders, in Care Teams, as Mission Drivers, in Music and AV, in Kids and Youth, in ESL and the list could go on and on. 

Thank you to everyone who has served whether for an hour helping set up an event or for six to eight hours a week in youth. Thank you to everyone who has served by pouring a cup of tea after church or making the church site look tidy every Saturday. There are so many acts of service and many that go unseen so for all of them and all of you, thank you. All that has been done, all your hard work, has been an important contribution to our mission of building wholehearted disciples of Jesus. Without you, a whole lot of things just would not have happened. So thank you. 

And as you serve, thank you for being an encouragement to me. I often have conversations in which people remind me that it is Jesus’ loving willing service of us that motivates their loving willing service of him and his people. You remind me every week that we don’t serve Jesus so we can become disciples, we serve Jesus because we are disciples. And it is a great blessing and joy to do so. To see lives changed, to see the gospel go forward and to see people served. There are lots of ways to use your time, some of them excellent, some ridiculous, but there are few better ways to use your time than serving Jesus.

So thanks for serving us as you serve Jesus. 

Now speaking of thanks, this coming Sunday, at all our services, we are going to have a special moment as we give thanks for and celebrate Rach Chan, Rosie Campbell and Courtney Booth as they come to the end of their MTS Apprenticeships. They will share some experiences from their apprenticeship, their future plans and together we will give thanks for the financial generosity of our church in partnering in their training. It promises to be a great day so don’t miss it.

Well, let me finish with this outpouring of thanks to God from Paul that captures much of how I feel for you too. 

“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”  Philippians‬ ‭1‬:‭3‬–6‬