Faithful with Little: Trusted with More | OCC Ministry Update

[0:00] Welcome to Ontario Community Church, where we are encouraging, equipping, and engaging lives for Christ.! I'm Pastor Patrick Daly, and each week I share sermons that balance the grace and love of Jesus Christ with the truth of the Word of God.

[0:15] Together, we'll explore Scripture using observation, interpretation, and application. This helps us discover practical ways to live out our faith every single day.

[0:26] Let's dive in together into God's Word. Hi, everybody! Hi! How's everybody doing this morning? Good! Good, good.

[0:37] So my name is Lisa Dickard, and I work for an organization here in Ontario, Oregon, called Building Healthy Families, and we're a family support organization.

[0:48] And Building Healthy Families is actually in more places than just Ontario. We started in Enterprise about 25 years ago, and then they moved into Union County, and then they moved into Baker County.

[1:01] And probably about three or four years ago, or maybe, well, more than that, about 2020, they moved into Malheer County. And so we're the newest branch of Building Healthy Families.

[1:13] I work full-time, and then I have a work associate that works very part-time. She's a stay-at-home mom, and she really enjoys doing that, so she's kind of helping out a little. But when her kids get a little older, she'll be full-time as well.

[1:26] But yeah, we are here to support families. And today, I've got a little PowerPoint, and I just want to share with you guys some of the things that we've been doing. And I also want to thank you guys, because you allowed us to have a parent education series here in your church this past winter and spring.

[1:45] And we had volunteers that some facilitated, some made meals for our families. And so I thank you for doing that with us, for partnering with us in that.

[1:56] And you guys have also donated to this organization, so I thank you for that as well. So we're going to go ahead and get started, and please feel free, if you have any questions, just stop me along the way.

[2:07] It's just real casual today. We're just going to talk a little bit about what this organization does. Okay, so Building Healthy Families. We are, we can go to the next, yep, go to the next slide.

[2:22] Okay, so we are an independent, nonprofit, family support organization. And we offer personalized, universal family support and educational programming for parents, caregivers, parents-to-be, students, and children through diversified programming at no cost.

[2:42] So families never get charged. They don't get charged for parent education. They don't get charged to come to Kinder Music or any of that. It's all free. We're grant-funded, mostly grant-funded, and some federal funds.

[2:54] We're focused on child development, age-appropriate behavior, parent-child interaction, positive discipline, and family health and safety.

[3:06] And we promote family access to needed resources in the community and advocate for children and families. We are interested in collaborating with other local agencies, school districts, churches, and child care centers in supporting families.

[3:20] That's one of the reasons I'm here today. Okay, so some of our programming. We've got playgroups and storytime and kinder music and parent education series.

[3:32] We've got parent cafes, which are part of parent education. Parent cafes are nice because they're non-committal. It's a one-time thing where they come out and learn about protective factors for their families.

[3:45] We have a safe sitter program. We have home visiting, family fun events, Malhear County Parent Council. Amber and Patrick are on our parent council.

[3:57] And family education workshops. And we're going to go through these slides and kind of take a look at some of these things. Okay, so first is our playgroup.

[4:08] And they are called the Mini Mountaineers. We meet on Wednesdays from 1030 to 1130 over at the Treasure Valley Children's Relief Nursery. Have many of you heard of the relief nursery before in Ontario?

[4:20] Ha ha. So we meet over at the relief nursery. And it's really nice because we have a lot of moms that have formed friendship out of this group. When we started the playgroup, I actually started in parks because we didn't have an office yet.

[4:35] I was working from home. And so I would go out to the park and just meet families. And that's kind of how playgroup got started. And then we started talking to the relief nursery. And they said, oh, we'd love for you guys to come over here and meet some of our families.

[4:48] So we meet over there weekly. But we like playgroup because it helps kids to socialize, right? We need that socialization for young kids.

[5:00] And it gets families out of the house. It encourages early childhood literacy through the natural development of skills, through the enjoyment of books, activities, and positive interactions between babies, toddlers, and young children and their parents.

[5:16] Okay. And it gives parents a sense of community, too, that they're not alone out there. Sometimes it can be hard for stay-at-home moms. Do I have any stay-at-home moms out here or anybody that's been a stay-at-home mom before?

[5:26] Yeah? Yeah. Yeah. It can be isolating sometimes. So it's good for us to have friends, right? Okay.

[5:37] We have story time. So over at Nissa Public Library, Ruth does an amazing story time. What we like about story time is it encourages early childhood literacy.

[5:48] It increases verbal proficiency and children's willingness to communicate thoughts and feelings while learning about different cultures, experiences, and points of view.

[5:59] All that can actually be done in a story time. It's really nice. It engages the children. So when Ruth tells a story, she doesn't just read a book and tell a story.

[6:12] She has her book, but she'll have a felt board, right? And if we're talking about an apple tree, she'll have the kids engaged by maybe they'll bring apples up to the tree, right, or different things like that.

[6:23] So they are up and down. They're fully engaged. They're fully learning. And we know right now that that's really how a lot of children learn best is being fully engaged and doing the action, the same thing that we're talking about.

[6:37] Okay. And also for child development, it helps to develop concentration, social, and communication skills, and helps children develop important emotional skills, such as empathy, compassion, and perspective taking.

[6:52] Okay. Okay. We also have kinder music. So kinder music stimulates multiple areas of the brain, heightening age-appropriate development in each lesson.

[7:05] Music and movement spark social-emotional learning and boosts language and literacy skills. And it provides engaging music and movement for children ages zero to six.

[7:16] The daily kids come to kinder music almost every Thursday over at the Four Rivers Cultural Center. And we just have a really good time together. It also provides parent and child engagement opportunities.

[7:30] So we don't just hand the kids instruments. We hand the parents' instruments, too. And they play as well. So they're able to do this together, which promotes bonding. Okay.

[7:42] We also have three parent education series. So we have Strengthening Families. And we were able to do that here at your church this past winter and spring. And this is a prevention and evidence-based curriculum that engages the family as a whole.

[7:58] So a lot of parenting classes you'll see, sometimes it's just for the parents. The reason why we like Strengthening Families is because it engages the whole family.

[8:08] And that skill that we are focused on that evening, that is taught to the whole family. So that's why we like having a lot of facilitators as well. Because we'll divide up into different classes.

[8:20] We'll have a parent group. We'll have an elementary group. We'll have a nursery. We'll have a teen group. And that's what we got to do here this past winter and spring. But it teaches life skills that can be helpful.

[8:32] And just social skills, communication skills. And gives our kids resilience skills as well. We also have another curriculum called Parenting Now.

[8:43] And it's focused on child development and parenting skills. And it's geared towards families that have children ages 0 to 6, mostly. It can be used with any age, really.

[8:54] But it's really geared towards young kids. Okay. And we offer these on Zoom or in person. And our last parent education class that we offer is called Conscious Discipline.

[9:06] And we really like Conscious Discipline because it goes, it talks about the different brain states that we all naturally have. And it educates us about brain science and why our kids behave the way they do.

[9:20] There's a reason they behave the way they do. And it helps us to find that reason. It also helps us to be able to teach regulation to our children. It helps us learn how to regulate internally.

[9:31] So we really do love Conscious Discipline as well. Next, we have Parent Cafes. Parent Cafes are great because they're focused on five important protective factors that help keep families strong.

[9:49] And so that's parent resilience, relationships, knowledge, support, and communication. So families get to come out and enjoy a lunch or a dinner.

[10:01] And as you can see from these pictures, we sit around a table, literally just eat. And we have discussion questions that are taken from these five protective factors.

[10:12] And so we discuss these different things. And then together, we walk away with skills that maybe we didn't have that morning when we walked in. Or maybe, you know, we just don't feel so alone anymore.

[10:23] Maybe we have something in common with another parent. Maybe another parent is struggling with potty training or any other thing. Or teens or anything you can think of, right, that families would be struggling with.

[10:38] Okay, we have Safe Sitter. So Ruth Blazard, my work associate, teaches Safe Sitter to kids that are in the sixth through eighth grades. And so they come in, and it's a day where they sit together, and they have lunch, and they learn about emergency preparedness, a little bit about child development, a little bit about babysitting business skills.

[11:01] There's actually business skills in babysitting. A little bit about life skills, and a little bit about how to communicate and interact with other people. It's a really nice class.

[11:12] I also provide home visiting. So if parents can't make a parent education class, then I'll come to them, and we'll do a home visit.

[11:23] We have a Malhear County Parent Council. Amber and Patrick are on that council.

[11:34] And the main purpose for this council is to serve as a platform to empower parents to have a voice and be active decision makers in their communities. And we are partnered with the Eastern Oregon Early Learning Hub in this.

[11:51] Okay. And we have different partnerships. So we're partnered with the Relief Nursery. That's where our office is. We're also partnered with Healthy Families, or IRCO, and Four Rivers Cultural Center, and the NISA Public Library, the NISA and Vail Food Pantries.

[12:09] We supply them with pantry items and early learning packets. Also, the Ontario Public Library, we supply them with learning packets.

[12:20] And then Advantage Dental. So we have Advantage Dental come out, and like two or three times a year, she'll come out and provide dental exams for our littles. We also are partnered with ODHS, the Oregon Department of Human Services.

[12:33] So I get referrals from them to do parent education classes or to do some home visiting. And then lastly, I've got you guys on here because we were able to do a parent education class.

[12:45] And my hope is that we can partner with more things together. Okay. What does it look like to partner with us? So it can be done in a number of ways.

[12:57] We are very creative. What I like, too, is I like getting ideas from other parents. I want to hear what parents want in this area. I want to hear what parents are needing. I want to see what is lacking here that we can help support with.

[13:12] So it can be, you know, anything that a parent comes up with, and we can talk together and make a plan. We do parent cafes, which is nice to bring families together.

[13:22] We have family educational workshops. So, and we're always looking for new ideas. And then these are some of our pictures, some of the things that we've done.

[13:33] We've had field trips. Sometimes we'll take families to pumpkin patches, or we went to the Children's Museum. That picture down below, that's Jessica with Advantage Dental doing an exam and educating parents about dental health.

[13:49] And then last is our Strengthening Family Winter Series that we had here at the church.

[14:01] And to end our series, we had a cookout at the Fruitland Park. So this is building healthy families. We're just out here trying to support families in any way we can.

[14:13] Do you guys have any questions, any thoughts? I think of anything. Yes, sir. You say your funding is state funding and federal.

[14:27] Based on what's going on now, do you expect to continue to get federal funding? We hope so.

[14:38] Yeah. Yeah. And that's not my area. My area is really just kind of going and serving families. Yeah. And so we hope so. Yeah.

[14:49] But it's been kind of rough. Oh, I know. Yeah. Yes. So are families referred to you, or how do they find out about a class, or how do they find out about a dad campaign?

[15:04] Is it a referral basis? That's a great question. Yeah. So a lot of it is word of mouth. We also have social media. So I have a group on Facebook. It's called Mini Mountaineers Playgroup.

[15:16] And I would encourage you to join that because I try to post a lot. I get permission from the parents first. But I try to post a lot of the work that we do in this county. So the Department of Human Services, they will send me referrals.

[15:31] Other partner agencies will send me referrals. And right now, we're just... So when I started working here a year, it'll be, let's see, 18 months.

[15:42] I started working full-time for Building Healthy Families. And we kind of just had to come up with programming, right? Like, we just... All of this kind of fell into place with Parent Education Series.

[15:54] That's pretty much what we started off with in Playgroup. And then it branched out into other things, kinder music and such. But it's referral-based, but it's also word of mouth. A lot of times, parents will see our social media posts, and they want to know more about it.

[16:09] And so they'll call me. Yeah. And I've got cards here today. I encourage you to take some cards. I'll leave them out there in the lounge area. Another question?

[16:22] Do you do things with children who have severe health challenges? Yes, we would. yes yes it's long so we are all about children and family support we advocate for children and families so yes we would do that work that hasn't been presented to me yet but we would do that work yeah and we're always looking for volunteers right when we had our strengthening families here it was great and part of what made it so great are the volunteers because it's great that i'm here and i'm able to do some of that work but i can't do it alone i need volunteers as well so if you're interested if you feel your heart moving in that direction please see me please you know it can be for anything it can be for a parent education series it can be coming to a parent cafe and supporting parents just kind of being there right it's not a lot that you have to do i know i've given referrals for up eight nine ten year olds so can you talk a little bit about those older families the high-risk kids that i'm sending to you so then you have we look through a lot on the younger kids yes what does it look like for the older kids the older kid groups yeah so we really do like our strengthening families program for the older kids so when i get a referral from you or anybody else that sends me a family that's got older children usually what i do is i go in and i home visit i will go visit the home if the parent is comfortable there are parents that they don't want you in their homes and that's okay i understand that fear it is it is a little bit scary to have somebody come into your home so if they don't want me in the home then we will meet at the relief nursery or we might need a coffee shop right and so what i do is i bring strengthening families with me so i bring those skills what's nice about strengthening families is we can make it a big program right here and do it at church and have a bunch of families come in and learn these skills or i can go sit with a family in their home and we can talk about these different skills and we can talk about their struggles and they can tell me really kind of what's going on in the home and how what kind of skills they're needing sometimes they're not sure of the skills sometimes it might be hey my kids are fighting and maybe it's just communication skills that we need right or hey i can't get my child to uh get up in the morning and go to school or i can't and a lot of it comes back to connection we know that uh the biggest thing in families that we really really need to have is connection we need to have bonding and connection and trust and sometimes we just have to go back over some different life skills to kind of remember again about that does that kind of answer your question joni okay is it all economic levels it's all economic levels yep you don't have to qualify to come to any of this programming well we we talk about that a lot we talk about the effects of it and what it does to a child's brain um because really kind of what it does is the more time that they're on a screen it kind of i hate it kind of deadens brain cells really it's not it's not good for them to be on the screen um and we we provide educational material and we talk through that and then we help families to maybe work out ways okay we can set a timer i mean sometimes we get so involved with just everyday life that we need to step back a little bit and say okay i could set a timer or i could make it one time during the day that they have this screen time sometimes families get so lost in the everydayness

[20:25] of life that if they just have a visit or if we just talk a little bit that they can kind of make some decisions for themselves about that and we're just helping them to see their different choices different options that they can do yeah any other questions okay thank you guys for having me here today thank you for allowing me to share about building healthy families and i'm going to hang out here a while so like if you think of something just you know come see me after church okay thanks all right just give us a moment as we uh trade it all off well i've only got a few minutes here and that's okay we're just going to get to the point then amen so i wanted to go ahead and do and a ministry update because one of the things that i want all of you to know is that god works in some incredible ways one of the things here at ontario community church is the fact that we are very big on coming to know the lord on growing in him and doing good in his name part of what we just heard with lisa is us as a church as the body of christ partnering with those who are in the community we have to think of the importance of having strong families the importance of healing and restoration and transformation that comes from the lord and part of our ministry is to not only serve in the church not only grow as individuals but to grow collectively as a church that we are to go out and to be ambassadors for christ that we are to do good in the name of christ and certainly let us remember it's important for us to first believe in jesus christ to believe in the death burial and resurrection and knowing that god extends an invitation for every single one of us it doesn't matter what you have gone through or what you are going through what your backstory is we all have a backstory and some of us it might just be okay for others it might not be and that's okay what matters is it's you answering that question will you respond to jesus christ we grow we learn the word of god but we also learn what it means for god to work in and through us for us to be continually transformed every single day yes we believe in jesus christ and we are saved by grace through faith amen but that is the beginning of our new life in christ where we are to put on the new self we are to continue to be transformed by him letting god mold us into the men the women the individual whatever that god wants us to be and that's so important for us to realize and to recognize we have the handbook so to speak but we also recognize that god continues to work in and through our lives we ask god to transform our lives and maybe for you if you have a hardened heart maybe it's time for you to ask god to soften your heart faithful with little trust with more let's go to this next slide we've been going over the parables of christ and one of the most critical things for us to take away is the patterns that we find within the parables church let's read this together god takes what is small and expansive you find so many times in scripture the seed that gets planted into the ground and it's cultivated it is watered and it grows into a magnificent tree or a plant and lord willing it bears fruit

[24:28] we find this kind of language many times in parables we also find this in the daniel 2 35 passage where it talks about the rock that knocks down a great statue and grows into a mountain well if you read that and you don't know the context and the connections you might completely miss what that means but it's finding that god is taking that which is small and expanding it we think of how salvation works and how the salvation was once available to the jewish people and has now available for everyone we think about how god transforms our life the seed that gets planted knowing that we are becoming more like him or at least we should become more like him and may you be on that trajectory to become more like christ let's go to that next slide then in that we find also in many parables that god calls us to stewardship let's read that together church god calls us to stewardship it is this concept it is this idea that we find that is biblical that we are to steward what god has given to us we find in psalms there's this reference of how god has given us the earth and we are to take care of it we're to take care of not just the earth but also our very lives there's a lot that's outside of our control but there are things that god has called for us to steward i've mentioned it before and i'll mention again that we are to steward our time our talent and our treasure every good gift that comes from the lord you are to steward it and by golly you are to steward it well and it's a call for us to think of you think of the parable of the talents you think of all of these parables within and these patterns within scripture that's saying how do you steward your life it's a question for us to think of and to reflect on i know i'm going fast here let's go to that next slide here the other thing that we find within parables is that let's read it together church god calls us to prepare for greater things you can think for a moment about the jewish people how they were anticipating the coming of the messiah right how they were waiting they knew that there were many promises and prophecies that were to be fulfilled and they came and they were fulfilled amen in the same way then we as the church god continues to speak and god is constant he is the same yesterday today and forever and we have got to recognize we place our trust in the living god knowing that he is preparing us for the great banquet the vineyard the wedding feast remember all these parables you start seeing the connection it is preparation for what is to come that we are not to be afraid of the evils of this world we're not to be afraid of even death itself but we are to look forward to the promises of god can i get an amen that's so important for us to prepare for greater things when we place our trust in the living god i think of this church body and i think of how this congregation has been faithful to god and his word for 80 years that faithfulness god recognizes and that faithfulness we are all to be faithful to god we are all to walk and follow in the footsteps of christ being transformed and and putting on that new self and sharing in the love of christ with others sharing in the gospel message living and loving in what you say and in what you do we have seen let's go to that next slide tremendous fruit that is happening here at ontario community church we've already had four baptisms that have happened here in this church building just this last

[28:29] week we have had 10 child dedications where the families come together as the family unit dedicating their children to the lord what does that mean it means we as the family unit are going to come alongside our children and raise them in the knowing who the lord is just as scripture says to train up a child right in the things of the lord four baptisms 10 child dedications and we have by the grace of god up to 20 children on a given sunday that is a blessing from god and here's the thing there's four more kids that would like to have a child dedication so that's going to place it at 14 because here's the thing when god works in some incredible ways it is beyond me it is beyond you it is even beyond us we thank god we have the sense of gratitude for what god is doing just by these numbers they they may be small but that doesn't mean they're insignificant every child every baptism every person that believes in the lord it matters and we celebrate that as we go along let's go to that next slide we just had lisa talk about building healthy families where we've had up to 30 people is that correct lisa up to 30 people and we have to think the importance of us as a church coming alongside with organizations in their mission because by coming alongside people it allows for conversation it allows for the cultivation of relationships it is this recognizing look none of us are perfect here is anyone here perfect okay nobody raised their hand i'm glad right i'm glad none of us are perfect and what we have got to recognize when it comes to the things of god is that god meets us where we are and in the same way why don't we we should meet people where they are and invite them to the table of plenty invite them to know who jesus is the haynes family they're not here this time but that is one family that started coming and attending here at ontario community and here's the thing even if no one comes it is still us doing the work of ministry where we minister to people where we are present with people how many of you came to know the lord because of a relationship you do not have to raise your hand but i know for me it was and i know for a lot of us here it was a relationship that was cultivated and just as we talked about in last week the parable of the growing seed where this guy is cultivating the earth planting the seed pouring water into it and he's surprised that it's growing you pour into people much like we pour into children and much like well how god pours into you let's go to that next slide then we had the school fundraiser the spaghetti for books raising 2 168 donating 306 books for local schools and our own church children that goes to show you that it is just as i mentioned this analogy the individual was pouring and cultivating the soil and he was planted the seed and poured water right watering the plant but it is god that grows the plants it is us coming alongside with others doing the work of ministry and letting god stir hearts do you remember when we went over ezra we talked about the stirring of the heart of the king to issue a decree that the people of god could return to their land we talked about cyrus

[32:36] xerxes and artaxerxes and how god worked in these pagan kings hearts that's the power of god that's the power of the holy spirit the stirring of the heart to be softened or to change your mind just as it says in repentance how many of you have had that changing of mind for all of us it should be the case that we not only are our minds changed to know who christ is but continue to be changed to become more like him the next slide is that occ was part of the upcoming film sansei sensibility i mean we have mark iseri here we have carol tolman here who were featured in the film and what a blessing it is for us to be a part of not only their story but a part of the story knowing the rich japanese heritage that had happened is the legacy and for us to be a part of that continued legacy is a blessing from god i'm excited when this film will come out talking to devon about maybe having a screening here for the film talk about ministry talk about legacy not only understanding yes certainly understanding the rich japanese heritage but also an opportunity for us to say hey we were a part of this you can be a part of the family of god it's a win-win situation and here's the thing that's not by accident that is the hand of god working in this place and we thank god for such blessings let's go to this next slide recently i launched the pastor patrick podcast you'll find this in your notes is that just as these sermons are broadcast and recorded and they're distributed onto podcast platforms and on video sessions i started a devotional study through the book of psalms and by the grace of god we saw not only a spike within our own sermons but a spike within the podcast performance doing this so that people within our local ministry context right our local community our regional and even beyond can hear from the word of god a praise that because of this podcast was we had a best-selling author dr pamela prince pile who wrote the book anticipating heaven reach out had a phone call and we talked about the ministry of presence coming along people when they are going through well seasons dry seasons vulnerable seasons and being able to minister to people even when they're going through they even when someone feels abandoned or lost the importance of being there with someone when they're hurting that is a part of ministry and it is a blessing that this author sent a copy of her book i haven't read all of it yet but it's knowing that every experience that we've gone to even the bad and the ugly can be part of your testimony for others to hear for others to know that you're still here and that god still loves you and no matter what may happen physically emotionally mentally whatever happens in your life you still trust in the living god and he's there for you in every season can i get an amen i get really emotional with this kind of stuff let's go to that next slide here

[36:40] and it's a reminder for us of the word ontario and i i've mentioned this a couple times before there's the book that talks about the church history that uses the japanese word on tara u we can just say ontario i'm not going to ask you to pronounce it but it's this idea that grace is overflowing or grace is an abundance we think about that from the very beginning of this church being established i can't imagine hearing that for the first time but knowing that that's been there since the beginning it goes to show who our god is that his grace is in abundance and his grace overflows that is the love of god that we get to experience and we get to share with other people and i pray that for all of you you may have experienced or you know or if you haven't yet may you know and experience the love of god that he loves you and that you're made in his image and that he invites you to salvation and to be transformed to radiate that love as it were or to mirror or to reflect in any sense that he wants to exhibit this love it's i'm glad that the lord loves me and i'm glad that the lord loves you it's not about who you voted for it's not about it's not a requirement you got to be six feet to attain salvation it's nothing like that that salvation is for everyone and we as individuals and as a church body are to grow and to exhibit that same kind of love and that takes us to the next slide where this year ontario community church will celebrate its 80th anniversary what a blessing to know that god has been there since the beginning has worked through many lives and is continuing to work and is blessing us in such remarkable ways we have got to remember the legacy and cherish the history much like we do with our own bible it being written 2 000 years ago we cherish the legacy and we honor it and we live in today and we look forward to tomorrow if we keep having more and more children i don't mean me having more children i mean if we start getting more children here we've got to prepare we've got to prepare the way so that we can have room in our own facilities for us i don't know what that looks like quite honestly but i certainly know i'm going to trust in god to lead and guide this congregation into the next season of ministry and as we celebrate and we're going to celebrate we're going to have our 80th anniversary celebration but as we're getting close to that celebration it is time for us to remember that legacy live in today and trust in god for tomorrow just as scripture says we're not to worry about tomorrow let us trust in him asking god okay there's a trajectory there's movement that's happening here may we listen may we be mindful to what god has for us and so there are four ways we'll go to that next slide of what we can do

[40:40] in this the first thing just as we find i don't have one specific verse this is the culmination of what we've gone through with parables is to number one let's read it together steward what god has given god has given you life he's giving you this time on the earth your talents your abilities and your treasures how you steward that is unique to you some of you can play an instrument others may not and that's all right some of you can't sing a note but some of you may have time i mean whatever it is it's for you to take that personal inventory of how is your stewardship the second thing then let's read it together church prepare hearts for greater things just as i've mentioned that god takes that which that which is small and expands it i believe that god is working in this place and we're just seeing kind of the beginning stages of it it is an exciting time and it's not just about numbers it's about depth and quality of people because if you think about it if you have a hundred people come in next sunday and they have no depth in the lord well there's a lot of work to do certainly but even if one person comes through the doors we pray that they will grow and bear fruit in a quality-like manner not being superficial but exhibiting love truth and kindness and being more like christ that's the important thing so we prepare for what god has in store for us number three let's read that together celebrate the legacy just as i said it's important for us to we honor the word of god we turn to it as our source in the same way we honor our own church context honoring the legacy not forgetting where we have come from and then of course living in today and fourth and final let's read it together church build bridges for the future it's amazing that just in this january i mentioned the theme for this year being about building bridges not burning them and unfortunately please don't raise your hand or shout any names please but we know that there's a lot of people out there that burn bridges right a lot of people that are more focused on what divides us rather than what brings us together but one of the beautiful things about just coming to know the lord is the fact that salvation is available for all so why should we become gatekeepers then we should continue in extending the love of christ and we should continue growing in him and continue there is so much that is happening in this church i am excited for what is going to happen next and here's the thing i don't know what's going to happen next do any of you well none of us do the answer is no but the reality is we're going to trust in god to lead us as a congregation for what god has in store for us the movement of the holy spirit the stirring of hearts let us steward what god has given to us let us prepare our hearts for greater things celebrating the legacy living in today and building bridges for the future let's pray together and father we thank you for this time and this opportunity for us to gather we are in awe or at least we should be in awe and wonder of who you are i pray for this church ontario community church the love that you have for us may we

[44:40] know you have that relationship with christ and grow in you knowing the word of god and what it means to live out the faith but may we all be moved to live and love like you serving in the church serving in the community being a light in the darkness being salt and light father you are working in some incredible ways that is beyond any comprehension i could have ever thought of and quite frankly beyond all our comprehension you are doing a new thing in this place and we would like to say thank you for all that you have done and all that you're continuing to do may we lean in and fully trust in what you have in store for our own personal lives but also for where you want us as a church to go we're grateful for all of the children and the new families we're grateful for the baptisms and the child dedications that are happening we're grateful for that may we follow your direction i pray that this church will be a healthy church not divided on the silly things the elementary things but rather may we seek you and the higher things and may we influence this city this community our friends our families our co-workers other students those that we know may we exhibit that love and that truth balancing grace and truth may you lead and guide and may we follow it is in the name of

[46:26] Jesus Christ that we pray and we all say together amen amen thank you for listening for this week's message from Ontario Community Church I pray that you are encouraged and strengthened in your walk with Christ for more sermons and resources visit Ontario Community Church dot org may God bless you as you live out his grace and truth every single day church to to to to to to to to to