Tomorrow marks 100. Wow.
It is hard to believe that it has been two years already. But as “they” say, time flies when you are having fun, right?
I can’t put into a short blog post a complete download of what these 99 Sundays at OneLife have been like, but they have been nothing short of a miracle. Literally.
I have seen scared, broken, hurting people walk through those doors on a Sunday morning and within weeks, their lives have completely changed.
I remember a now very dear friend of mine coming to OneLife for the first time with her boyfriend. As she entered the building she hardly made eye contact with me as I tried to introduce myself and welcome her. All they wanted to do was find a seat in the auditorium and be left alone.
And who wouldn’t? If you have ever been hurt by the church, by “churchy” people, or have preconceived notions of the church being full of hypocritical, judgmental people, sure it can feel a little yucky walking through those doors.
But that is why I so love my church and, even more so, love what God has done through our church. Because we are not that church!
Without spitting out a bunch of yay-for-us stats, I thought I would give a few personal to-God-be-the-glories that I have seen and experienced over the past two years at OneLife.
Here they are:
- Countless examples of marriages on the rocks, close to divorce, or broken by infidelity being repaired and restored.
- Children and adults becoming believers OUTSIDE of the church walls and NOT just on Sunday! You don’t have to walk an aisle people!!!
- Baptisms. OneLifers are made fully aware that baptism itself does not <insert churchy word> save you, but that baptism is an outward symbol to show others that you are a Christ-follower. And seeing people give video testimony of their understanding of this and how their lives have changed, and then to demonstrate this through being baptized…. Pretty amazing to see.
- But above all, 99 Sundays ago, Rodney and I literally did not know what was in store for us and for our new church. Would people actually show up? Would they like it? Would they come back? I remember seeing the first Facebook post from a guest about OneLife and it said something to the effect of “I love my church!” …and I was so relieved!
Thank you God for changing lives and for igniting a passion and a purpose in us for something so much bigger than ourselves. And thank you for using One Life, and KEEP using us, as one of your tools in reaching out to the people who have otherwise given up on You. Amen.
