Becoming a church. Yay, God!

On Sunday, November 12 the Presbytery of Twin Cities Area lead worship at Chain of Lakes where we celebrated that Chain of Lakes made the transition from a New Church Development to an organized, Presbyterian Church.  Chain of Lakes is the newest Presbyterian church in Minnesota. 

To watch the service go to: https://vimeo.com/242512698

Is Chain of Lakes all that different now compared to before our group of people was chartered as a church?  In some ways no.  We are organized a bit different.  We now have Articles of Incorporation and Church Bylaws; soon we will be registered with the State of Minnesota and have separate, non-profit status with the Federal Government; we now have a Presbyterian PIN number. 

But a large group of people didn’t gather on November 12 to celebrate these organizational details.  A group gathered to celebrate that a new faith community is now a recognized church.  This transition is a reflection of the faith, perseverance, and determination of a group of people called Chain of Lakes Church.  We celebrated that the Presbytery decided to start and support a new church.  And we celebrated that God could a literal mustard seed and developed something very special.    

For three weeks in November the people of Chain of Lakes have celebrated.  We celebrated our brief history, our present, and our future.  Often we shared the story of seven families gathering in the Rice Lake Professional Building in February 2009 to meet with me, the Organizing Pastor.  The vision for that group on that day in February was to become a chartered church. 

As with all visions, many people doubted if the celebration on November 12 would ever take place.  For how does a group of seven families develop to a point where they are designated as a church?  How do they do that with a pastor who had only been to Blaine twice before that meeting?  At that time in my life Central was a direction and not a road; Radisson was a hotel and not a major street; the Lakes was plural for lake and not a housing development.  I didn’t know anything about Blaine.  

And now here we are an organized church with a very bright future. 

I will always remember this day that Chain of Lakes chartered.  I will remember the large sense of accomplishment that existed in our worship space; I will remember the many friends who came to be with us to celebrate; I will remember standing between my wife, Amy, and my daughter, Hannah, and share in the midst of tears how much I was thankful for their support.

Not too many people have the opportunity to start a church from virtually scratch.  I am humbled to have had this privilege.  God is very amazing!