A New Thing?

It always amuses me when people try to tell others exactly how God does things. Yes, it is true that there are some things that God tells us in His Word that give us some general direction – salvation is through faith in Christ alone, God will baptize believers in the Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues, etc. But for the most part, God seems to delight in surprising us. One recent example in my life is the addition of yet another congregation/group to our expanding “community of communities” here at West Valley Christian Center. About five years ago I was approached out of the blue to sponsor and oversee a group of Assyrians (look that up – they haven’t had an independent country for over 2600 years!) who would be a department of our church and whose Pastor had served as a pastor in Iran and treasurer of the Iranian Assemblies of God. While I was happy to help, I wondered how I could really be of assistance. Five years later there is a thriving congregation that is ready to become a “parent-affiliated” church under the continued sponsorship of our church. Then, just over a year ago, I was approached to do the same thing with a new congregation of Armenian/Iranian refugees in the Glendale area. Now we would sponsor and oversee a group that didn’t even meet at our location! A year later, they too are about to become parent-affiliated and have grown to over 200 members and adherents! And now, we are in the planning stages for yet another group, much smaller at this time, that will be a part of our church, and whose leader will be an associate on my staff, that will cooperate with us and perhaps become the seed of yet another church plant. To say that I never envisioned myself doing this, or our church becoming the “breeding ground” for other churches, is a vast understatement. But that is just like our God! I feel completely unprepared for this. I not only have not had any training but no one seems to have even heard of a training program for doing this kind of thing. So I guess I will just have to rely on God for strength, direction and guidance. Not a bad place to be in!

Pastor Ken