Jerry Kizzire, senior minister at Lake Superior Christian Church (LSCC) in Marquette, MI — who preached at Westwood on April 6 — called it a “God weekend.” He could not have been more right. Our two congregations have been inextricably intertwined since Christine represented WCMA at LSCC on December 8 and then died on December 10 after her accident, and God did some amazing things at both congregations through the events of last weekend.
The weekend events began on Thursday when Jerry and his wife, Natalie, left Marquette to begin their trip to Madison and I left Madison to travel to Marquette so that we could each preach for the other’s congregation. Ryan Gilroy, who has begun plans to plant a church in Manistique, MI, traveled with me so that we could meet with LSCC leadership about the church plant. We all traveled on Thursday because forecasts called for a winter snow storm in the U.P. on Friday, but even an all-day snow storm could not stop what God was about to do.
The actual events of the weekend began with the Madison Christian Women’s Retreat on Friday evening. Although the attendance was smaller than the planners would have preferred, all the ladies were blessed by the retreat events and by this year’s speaker, Shelly Larson. I spoke with Shelly on Monday, and she was thrilled with how well the retreat went.
On Saturday, Ryan and I attended LSCC’s monthly men’s breakfast and shared information about WCMA and the two current church plants in Menomonee Falls and Muskego and plans for the Manistique church plant. Then we met with some of the elders and missions team from LSCC for a broad ranging discussion about the church plant. There is growing momentum and enthusiasm for the church plant project in Manistique that will result in Ryan, WCMA, and LSCC all working together to see another church planted in the U.P.
On Sunday, I preached in both services at LSCC. I preached the sermon I preached at Westwood on February 2 when I returned to preaching after Christine’s death, “When Life Tumbles In, What Then?” Quite a few people at LSCC, shared with me conversations they had with Christine when she was at LSCC on December 8. Jerry preached at Westwood from the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25 and asked, “Are You Ready?” He told about his interaction with Christine on December 8 and then told the adult class about Christine’s presentation at LSCC on December 8 and how their congregation had learned about her accident and death and how they then prayed for me, my family, and Westwood in their worship service on December 15.
All through the weekend God was at work, healing our hearts, strengthening bonds of friendship and creating new ones, and prodding us for how God will work in the future through another church plant, the very thing for which Christine had gone to LSCC on December 8 with which to challenge them.
Videos of Christine’s presentation at LSCC on December 8 and of the prayer time there on December 15 are available on LSCC’s website at this link. If you just want to see the applicable parts of the videos, fast forward to 51:37 on the December 8 video and to 13:10 on the December 15 video. Also, the audio of Jerry’s sermon and his adult class presentation are available on Westwood’s web site: www.westwoodchristian.com. The audio of my message at LSCC is also available at this link and the video of the worship service from last Sunday at LSCC is available at this link or either may be accessed through the sermon page on our church website.
No comments:
Post a Comment