“Yet He bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.” Isaiah 53:12
Our meeting this month began with a devotion led by Pastor Jonathan. We reflected on Isaiah 53, an Old Testament prophecy that significantly points to Christ. While much of the passage has the potential to point to other saviors, heroes, and even the people of Israel as a whole, it is the unique claim of bearing the sins of others, interceding for them, and accounting them as righteous (see verse 11) that points us to Jesus. We were reminded that it is Jesus who accomplishes victory for us, not our own striving. It was a wonderful reminder, even as we strive to work for him, that we cannot do it on our own and we need the power of Jesus to intercede for us and carry us forward.
After our devotions, we spent time in prayer over our congregation. This is a time for us as elders to pray for those who are hurting, struggling or in need in our church. It is also a time to thank him for his faithfulness in answered prayer! Our prayer is often not begging for a miracle that we have never seen before, rather it is asking God to “do it again!” One of the joys of being an elder is getting to pray over our brothers and sisters and be a witness to God’s healing work in their lives.
Speaking of God’s faithfulness, we were happy to debrief on our very first AGM as Promontory Community Church. Thanks to everyone who made it out, and a special thanks to those who shared your stories with us! We are blessed to have faithful and godly brothers and sisters among us. It has been so encouraging to see how the Lord has been paving the way for us this past year and how so many of you have responded to his call to lean into building his church.
As we look back on the AGM, we also look forward to the most significant even on the Christian calendar: the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we reflect on and celebrate at Easter. We look forward to a full Easter weekend, beginning with our Good Friday Service, a Saturday Easter Egg hunt, and Easter Sunday Service. This is a time of year when we really focus, even more than usual, on the fundamental core of the Christian faith: Jesus dying for our sins and being raised from the dead. It also happens to be a time of year when folks are more open to darkening the door of a church, so we encourage you all to invite someone to our Easter service if anyone comes to mind.
A couple of housekeeping items came up in our meeting that I believe are worth sharing here: firstly, we are in need of more small group leaders. We have been blessed with an abundance of people joining our church and wanting to go deeper, but we do not have enough small groups to accommodate everyone. If this interests you or you feel called to serve in this way, please reach out and we would love to equip you to take on this role. Secondly, with the abundance of people comes an abundance of vehicles and lack of parking on Sunday morning. We would like to remind our volunteers and regular attendees to consider parking in the upper parking lot or further up the street in order to make a little more room for newcomers to find a spot. Thanks in advance!
If you’ve stuck with me this long reading this, congratulations! I will close with asking that you continue to join us in prayer, lifting up our church and our community to grow in knowledge and relationship with our God and Savior Jesus Christ. We look forward to worshipping with you in the weeks to come and particularly this Easter. See you all soon, and God bless!
Justin Vugteveen
On behalf of the Elders