Last week’s homecoming service: share what stood out, what bruises were poked, what bruises were healed, where was God at work in our midst last week?
Stephanie – It was such a good Sunday. I had no idea the service was going to happen that way, it was such a surprise. Most of you know the last couple of years with my brother have been awful in our family unit. The last 6 months were probably the worst of it. There was no communication between my brother and my parents. Sunday, when I got home from church I was just happy and had so much joy. I found out that during service my brother had texted me and had actually apologized to my parents. Not just to sweep things under the rug, which we’re known for, but an actual apology to my parents. And he’s coming over today for lunch. That will be the first time we have been together in probably 9 months. So, huge blessing on that. I had 3 job offers last week and then yesterday I was asleep on the couch about 4 o’clock and felt somebody waking me up. I woke up and was surprised to see my nephew home from the army. He came home to surprise us, we hadn’t seen him in a year. And he had his new wife, which we didn’t know he got married this week. So, here’s my nephew and his wife standing in front of me and my brother will be here today and we now have his oldest son home. Yes, blessings upon blessings for all these things this week. I give that all to the power of God in this building last week.
Bonnie – I was expecting all the chairs to be full this morning, because I think last Sunday there were only a couple of chairs empty in between people. It seemed like – Yes, this is Westside, we are back! We’re back and we’re going to stay family again. I cried last Sunday. I don’t cry much when I’m at home watching everything on my cell phone. But God was in this room last Sunday, totally in this room. It was great and I can’t wait to continue this.
Michele – I don’t exactly know where all this is coming from, but the minute I walked in today, something’s going on here. Last week for me, 2 ½ hour service was great. I enjoyed seeing Pastor Brian, meeting Pastor Dan because I wasn’t here at that point. And seeing all the people coming back. But the thing that is really coming to me today, and from the minute I walked in it hit me, we have been so surrounded the last year and a half with change. I don’t know about you, and I don’t even know if it’s true that as you get older change gets harder. But it’s like we’re still in it and I have to admit I’m kind of tired. Walking in here today, I have to admit – it’s just me, walking in here and seeing it different again, you know what I mean. It's like holding onto the old…but, what got interesting as I looked around and I see this upfront… I miss having the candles by the cross. It’s just my thing. I said to Pastor Brett – You changed things. But what really got me was that first song you picked out for today and that brought it home. Now, really think about that. We’ve had so much change and that gave me goosebumps, because it was like God was in my heart. He heard me, and it just can’t be me, everyone sitting here has to feel the difference, the change. You’re entitled to make this your place. It’s all of ours, but you’re making it the way you want to teach us, relate with us; be with us. It’s like really trying to find peace in my heart to take in the change. Sandy’s song really brought it home for me. None of this makes any difference, the only thing that counts is that. So, if anyone else is having trouble with change, just look up and say thank You!
Jan – I can understand now why all of you had real effort to let go of Pastor Dan. I hadn’t met him, but his message was beautiful. So, we had trouble letting go of our precious Pastor Brian, but you know Pastor Brett really isn’t that bad! Anyway, I wanted to share how much Pastor Dan’s message meant to me. His message was on God being with us, for us and guiding us. The thing that really struck home with me was he brought in the verse – We are saved through grace by faith. Anyway, it’s through faith and he made a comment about that. He said – Faith brings alive the with us. I think that’s so true. But it came to me during the week that you have to have faith that God is with you. You know, you can’t always feel Him. You can’t see Him. But by faith, God is with us and He’s for us and He’s guiding every step. I just want to thank everybody for their prayers. Pastor Brett would send me a little text saying - I’m praying for you today. You know how much that means? Prayer truly is powerful. It brings to life our faith. God has been so gracious and kind to me. I got to hold my precious Wayne’s hand when he took that last breath. I told this to many of you already, because it was so powerful for me. I could have been outside. I could have been out in the kitchen. But, he took that last breath when I was sitting right there by him holding his hand. And that was a gift, it really truly was! And thank you for all your wonderful prayers, I’ve felt them.
Gayellyn – So, when you talked about change, as the Holts and I know… Watching the video of, as I called it, the church of the plastic boxes, and watching the change through time and thinking – Wow, what do we have ahead for us? I don’t fear change the way I used to. Having Dan here and Brian here and Brett here it was just – Wow! Just incredible. The excitement of what we have ahead of us is just amazing. God has plans for us. We didn’t know we were going to be here 26 years later. We didn’t know what our footprint would be. It’s just exciting to know we’ve got a lot ahead of us. And we serve an amazing God.
Sandy – I’d like to piggyback on what Gayellyn just said. We’ve been through so many changes here, so many over the last 26 years; I kind of like the change in a way, because it keeps things new and fresh. Keeps us on our toes. I was sharing with Pastor Brett this morning that what really got me was just to see Pastor Brian be able to baptize the girls, because I feel like he just got robbed of so much of the things we had planned for his last year here. And the last 6 months were just really hard to not be able to do those things that we had planned to send him off. So, it’s just nice to get that closure.
Gavin – I wasn’t big on whatever was going to end up in here. I assumed it was going to be a stripped down, cleaned up version of what we used to do. And I dig this. I take this whole little scene and the possibilities and imagine right now they are way larger than they were before. I have to give you credit, Brett, you saw something that I didn’t see.
Chris – I kept hearing in my mind the verse, I’ll paraphrase it – Behold, I make all things new. That’s kind of what I’m feeling about this moment. When Deb & I first came to this church, about 10 – 11 years ago, Brian was just in his 2nd year. Loved the service and I arranged to meet Brian for coffee. And come to find out that he was really discouraged. He was going through a really tough time because of the way the transition from Dan to him worked out. He didn’t feel like he was well received and some people left. He said – Maybe you and Debbie coming in will be the start of something new. And other folks were new and God did right here. Now we hit another transition that hasn’t exactly been what we expected, right? How Brett had to come in with the pandemic. But, you know, God is doing something new here too that’s just inspiring.
Rich – I would like to say one thing – I’m going to call Brett out on the carpet here in a good way. You joined us right after we got locked down. That sucked. That transition was terrible. All this time later, we’re here together, at least in part because of the effort that you and the worship team and all the people volunteering and all the people working to figure out how we progress. And the good Lord’s blessing. We’re here today in person. And just let me say – Welcome to Westside!
Dianne – I have been struggling a lot with pain and I could not make it last Sunday. I was really upset, but just hearing this gives me hope for the future. I’m facing a really big surgery in December for my knee replacement and I’m scared to death. But, I keep hearing change is good; this too shall pass. And God is always there for me no matter what happens, He’s there for me. I’m glad to see that so many people are here today, it just gives me hope.
Krista – It felt like coming home.
Pastor Brett – I don’t know if I’ll be able to give words to it for a while. So much came together behind the scenes to pull it off. It was so evident that every day and every hour of that last week was like getting ahold of the Staceys, getting ahold of Brian, connecting with Dan about the early part of Westside, bringing together a story… Finding the words to frame what was happening for me at least. I think a lot happened. I think a lot was just putting something together, throwing it up in the air and hoping that God would take it and… It was a lot and I loved it. I felt like I was in a dream. I even texted Sandy and Gayellyn who helped with some of the setup last week; celebrating with joy about how things went. I said – Was that real? Did that really happen? It made me think of Psalm 126 – when there’s this return, we get this very clear picture from the Psalmist that it felt like a dream. I guess that’s where I’m at right now and over time it will probably make more sense about what happened.