Grand Opening Doesn't Disappoint

Sunday, October 11, was a milestone for ClearView Church! After more than two years of hard work, our start-from-scratch church plant celebrated it's Grand Opening! The celebration was full of fun, new faces, great music, an official welcome to the community from Mayor Ferguson, and a message detailing why ClearView exists. We had a great day of energy...one that was truly a culmination of a lot of work and many answered prayers. God gave us a beautiful day outside for the festivities that followed- free pizza, grinders, salad and ice-cream along with activities for children (face-painting, games, and bounce houses). All-in-all, I think all of the 162 in attendance sensed God's presence and had a great time.

Personally, I'm not sure I've ever felt so satisfied (vocationally). The day was just a clear movement of God in many ways. I left feeling that I/we had so much to be thankful for and that God was/is just really, really good to us. Here are a few things I've contemplated this week that I give praise to God for:

• I am so pleased with our ClearView team. I've been amazed, over the last few weeks, how people have come together, new people have plugged in, and we've made significant strides to improve all of our critical systems (Sunday worship, KidView, Wow Factor, Set-up/tear-down, etc.). There has been great energy, wonderful commitment, and excellence from people that are truly excited about ClearView's vision. In some cases, families that have only been with us a few weeks carried out vital roles to make our Grand Opening a success.
• The decision of our team to rally and move locations has proved to be truly wisdom from God. Moving to New Albany High School has acted as a rallying cry for our crew and I believe God used this transition point to create a sense of urgency in us that was needed to make this final push towards the great goal of a large Grand Opening.
• Things on Sunday went really smoothly. Considering that we just implemented sound and video into our services over the last 4 weeks (since we started meeting at the High School), we've had to train people, troubleshoot, and figure out our systems in these areas in a compressed amount of time. God was truly good to us in how well the program went. Also, our greeters and children's workers were on the top of their game and all facets I observed (and got comments on from others) were excellent.
• We were pleased with the attendance. Even though I had prayed for 200, I think 162 is full of miracles. It was SO exciting to see a full house and so many smiling new faces. There was a great buzz of excitement in the air...and I think our team felt a great sense of praise to God for answering our prayers for a good turnout.
  
• God worked through the marketing He helped us put together. Well over half the audience came due to a post-card or billboard or other form of promotion. It was exciting to see a lot of hard work in this area pay-off.
• It was personally gratifying to me to hear a lot of positive comments about the message I shared. I loved putting this talk together because it was a simple explanation of our purpose statement: ClearView exists to love people to a clear view of Jesus and His mission. I shared from the Bible about why we work to love people (because Jesus did, God does, and mission requires it), that we want to love them to Jesus and then help them adopt Jesus' mission as theirs. I heard a response from several people that they felt compelled by this vision and want to help ClearView fulfill it! Praise God!

I'm sure there is more that I could share. But, if you are a regular blog reader and have prayed for us over the last 2.5 years as we've worked towards this special day- thank you. God has answered your prayers and done a great work. Ephesians 3:21.