Pastor Stone has given me the great honor of sharing our story.
This weekend we celebrated Easter Resurrection Sunday…
This weekend we joined together and celebrate that our savior has risen!
We celebrated how death was conquered and a Great Story!
However this weekend…in our church there is another great story forming… a story of how another kind of resurrection is taking place, how a community is rising and alive!

Rewind to September of 2008

The First Congregational Church of Lisle, Which is THE oldest continually operating church in Dupage County, found themselves without a Pastor. The Reverend John Bolinger had lovingly served the Lord and this church for many years. Sadly his will to continue his role was not enough to overcome his ailing health.

At the same time we were a growing new church in Lisle with a Pastor but lacked a building as we operated our Sunday services out of the Hyatt.

The real beauty of this story is revealed when you see, how there were two congregations who each were in desperate dire straits – Each one PRAYING for God to work something out… yet looking back on it now… I think we would all agree that we had NO IDEA what God was orchestrating. With a different approach to worship but the same heart for the work of the Lord, God saw fit to use Thriftque, a ministry of Chicagoland Church and now First Congregational as well to bring together a few of his humble servants from both groups to be the BRIDGE over TROUBLED water so that HIS purpose and HIS will could be fulfilled.

After deliberation and evaluation this church, 1st Congregational, stepped out by faith and elected Rev. Eric Stone to be their Pastor.

Along with that unanimous vote was the decision that the church that I was part of “Chicagoland Church” would relocate to this facility…
What was originally decided was that we would have two churches with one location and with one Pastor.
This obviously led to a transition for everyone here in this room, a change in service time for First Congregational and a relocation for the Chicagoland Church among other adjustments.

For me personally what has amazed me is that throughout the re-location process, I/we learned some incredible things about the history of First Congregational and their volunteers. The more we learned, the more we realized we shared the same passion for the mission to see the love of God and good news of Jesus’ teachings being shared with the community of Lisle and through out Chicagoland.

Pastor Eric started teaching the series asking “What’s the point of all this anyway’s?” He came and lovingly confronted the idea we all have about our own individual preferences and how we tend to think my way is the RIGHT way and the ONLY way… We as a community began to identify the reality that it’s not about me or you or music or styles… It’s about reaching out to those that are hurting and confused and those trying to find their way into the loving embrace of a Savior who loves them. That’s really the POINT of why we go to church and came this weekend. Now that is something we can all agree we should be United around…

This missional heart and vision is what has us here together today. We are moving forward in partnering together rather than simply sharing space in a building. Every Sunday you can gather here to enjoy a beautiful traditional service at 9:00 a.m. or join us for a contemporary service at 10:30

However for our Holiday Service we lay down routine to gather together like this.

So this weekend was our first official combined service! This is a landmark, monumental day for our church. The members of the Traditional 9:00am and Contemporary 10:30 services each have humbly made the sacrifice of getting of their own individual PREFEERENCE so that we can come together, expand the kingdom of God and pioneer a way to make a greater IMPACT on the AREA that we live in and the world to what it means to be united!!

See we believe that as good as the History is… The greatest Day’s are ahead of us and Not behind us!
Our story… is a very Kingdom-minded adventure and we are learning together.
A brand new church and a church over 150 years old, breaking down barriers and embracing different view points, while living out the mission of Jesus Christ. We have something here…there is something about today…it is the greatness of our Lord lived out through the example of humility.

You see we recognize that it is not our SAMENESS that draws us together it is our SAVIOUR that really draws us together… United we all bow at the cross of our Savior Jesus Christ. We have found strength because of our differences because it has led us to humility and that is where our Lord wants us.
We believe there is more in that common thought that UNITES us than anything else that could possibly DIVIDES US…

So regardless if you prefer hymns or contemporary songs,
regardless if you like a single piano or drums, guitar’s and a band
regardless if you like to stand and sing or set and meditate
Regardless if you like to shout amen or quietly nod your head…
You are WELCOME HERE AT OUR CHURCH…

See we gather because we like the diversity of what God is doing here… We envision a place where a 24 year old set’s across the table from a 74 year old and they recognize that they are united – together.
It EXCITES us to be this Multi-Generational, Multi-Cultural Church, our story only adds to what makes our church great- two very different groups finding the Cross to come together…

We happen to think that what God is doing here is GREAT and GOD HONORING!

That is why this weekend a HISTORIC DAY, Easter 2009, WE Celebrate as ONE UNITED Body of Christ.

Pastor Stone said to me the other day that our church is also incredible because we know the only BE Attitude left out of the Bible…BLESSED are the FLEXIBLE for they shall not BE bent out of shape.

MAY we COOPERATE with what God is doing here in our community. It’s a beautiful Story and we celebrate it.

Posted in Teaching Series