It's been a whirlwind of a week as we prepare for our move to Ontario Christian Fellowship. Last week OCF Pastor Kim Mauer and I met with his leadership board and presented our plans for using the OCF chapel on Sunday nights. That meeting went really well. Kim and I met afterward and set up another meeting for Tuesday of this week to commit our understanding to writing - always a good idea and a smart way to remain friendly with friends when entering into a business relationship! We completed that work Tuesday, got approval from our two different leadership teams and signed off on the lease yesterday.
Yesterday morning I received the email newsletter Pastor Kim Mauer sent to his congregation welcoming CR to OCF on Sunday nights. Close behind that email was another one from Kim responding to my invitation to visit Church Requel on our first Sunday night in the chapel. I'm so thrilled he will be there. It will be the perfect ending to three months of discussion, praying and dreaming. Kim has been such an encouragement to me over these past two years, meeting with me occasionally for breakfast. He really does have a Kingdom heart and a passion for Christ's work.
We have made much progress on changing over Church Requel from Mid-Ohio mode to OCF mode. Many of the technical aspects of our church setup will need to be changed. We'll be ready for church Sunday night, but I would imagine there will be many developments over the course of the summer as we adjust to our new venue. Not all of our equipment has arrived (for example our second lighting tree is still somewhere in Iowa), but that will just give us more to look forward to as we move forward!
Sunday evening we will continue our normal summer worship plans. Nate and his worship team (Trisha and Christian this week) are ready with an acoustic set that will draw us into our Lord's Presence. We'll share communion together as always, but with a slight twist. We're no longer restricted to using white grape juice (a Mid-Ohio requirement) and so will be able to better remember Christ's blood shed with the dark grape juice. Mark Shaw will lead our prayer time. Jillian Pierce will be our reader. And I'll continue the Philippian series with a close examination of "to live is Christ, to die is gain."
It's sure to be a great service, and maybe even a historic one! Don't miss it. I hope to see you Sunday night at Church Requel meeting at Ontario Christian Fellowship at 6PM.
