Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Family Business


Isaiah 6:8
Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Who shall I send, and who will go for US?"

I've waited about posting from last Saturday night, until I could collect my thoughts. As most of you know we took care of some family business, so to speak, in the ordination of Seth Barber. It was truly an incredible evening as family, friends and regular attend-ees to VRC gathered together.

Seth is the first person that we have ordained under the covering of Vineyard Recovery Church. During the service, I opened the room up to anyone who wanted to either share a memory of Seth or wanted to pray a blessing over Seth and Emily. Several stood, including Steve and Marilyn Yarbrough, founders of Rapha. Each story only emphasized the miraculous work God has done in Seth. 

I shared our (Vineyard) view of ordination is a bit different from others, that John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard, was always being asked by people if he would ordain them into the ministry. John's reply was always, "Go get the puppies and I'll give you the papers."  In other words, go show me you can pastor, that you actually do have a call, and I will give you the papers of ordination. After sharing that, I said that Seth comes to us with all manner of puppies. He has proven that indeed he has been called to the ministry.

To top everything off, we also had two others who wanted to be baptized. So the entire group moved from our regular meeting room over to the Great hall.
There was family of the two men being baptized present and you could tell that this was a huge milestone for them. To see their sons being baptized was just the beginning of this new life these two men have laid hold of.  It was one more stone laid in a wall of hope that God was erecting in the lives of these families.

At the end of the evening as I locked the door, once again I looked back into that empty room and said, "Wow, God! How are you going to top this?" Funny part is that when we meet again this coming Saturday, I know He will. He's kind of like that, isn't He?

God on you...
mb


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