Thursday, March 10, 2011

What God is up to at WBC

What is God up to at Westbury? Sometimes we get lulled into thinking that the Sunday morning worship service IS the main thing, and everything else is extra. Worship is indeed important, and I look forward to it every week. But there are other exciting, world-changing, Christ-exalting things going on at WBC. God is at work in and through our church in a variety of ways around the clock. For instance:

Our partnership with McNamara Elementary, in its third year, continues to be fruitful for both WBC and the school. Each Tuesday when I pray with Mrs. Chenier and Mrs. Taylor, I see the presence of God on that campus. Recently, Kristy Davidson, who volunteers weekly at McNamara, told me about a little boy who she has been helping with his reading all this year. It has been discouraging at times, since the boy is far behind his peers. But a few weeks ago, he volunteered to read aloud to the class. When he was done, his classmates gave him a spontaneous ovation, and he beamed with pride.

Our partnership with Braes Interfaith Ministries is just as important. Every week, WBC members help the poorest residents of our community in a variety of ways. Meanwhile, our deacons are helping people who cannot afford necessary house repairs through their His Helpers ministry. Sunday School departments and our Heart to Hand Ladies’ Bible Study are active in mission work around our city. And each Sunday, four ethnic mission congregations meet on our campus, reaching people in other languages and cultures. Our Hispanic mission, Iglesia Bautista Abarim, recently called a new pastor, Jose Gomez. Pray for him, and for our other mission pastors.

Our church’s impact outside the stained glass windows is going to become even greater in the near future. Our Church Life Council recently voted to sponsor a campus missionary at the University of Houston for the next academic year. This will be a recent graduate who decides to give a year to mission work on Texas’ third largest college campus, and by far the most diverse and international school in our state. Meanwhile, the missionary will serve as a liason between our church and the campus, enabling us to minister to new believers and helping us with our own college ministry. Shortly after we voted to approve this ministry, an anonymous donor gave the entire amount needed to sponsor this missionary. Needless to say, I was pretty excited about that!

That doesn’t include the many individual church members involved in powerful ministry outside our walls on a regular basis. Nor does it include the money your tithes send to mission work around the globe. I pray that WBC will continue to become more and more an Open Door to New Life for people in our city and around the world. But for now, I think it’s important to praise God for the work He’s already doing through our church.

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