A great night with great people at a great place!

A big thanks to everyone who came to our Property Celebration last night. It was by far the largest and probably most successful event we’ve had at Chain of Lakes New Church since I have worked here. This was a very big event for the people of our new church to do—and everyone did a terrific job.

I was a bit concerned at 3:30 p.m. yesterday afternoon when the sky over the property started to drizzle. I was so uptight about the weather that I was going to weather web sites every 15 minutes to see what was happening. I saw that there was clear sky behind the front that was going through. If it is possible to root a weather front through an area, I was doing it!!

I claim no power over the weather, but the skies dropped drizzling at 5:30 p.m. The group in charge of set-up very quickly did their final preparations and all that was left was to wait for the people to come.

And they came!! A large group from our new congregation came; a number of churches in the Presbytery sent representatives, and the people from the neighborhood around the property came. It was so fun watching car after car turn onto the property. It was fun watching our parking attendants directing the cars where to go. It was a beautiful evening to be outside. Many of the neighbors saw the event and walked over to check it out.

A big thanks to the Praise Band from Presbyterian Church of the Way for singing—they were terrific; a big thanks to John Ivers and Ward Sessing for speaking. Chaz Ruark gave a moving talk about how his perspective has changed since his granddaughter was born. Mayor Tom Ryan gave a terrific talk about the importance of churches in a community. My favorite line from his talk, “everyone needs a little religion.” In my talk I encouraged everyone to imagine all the blessings that will take place on the property in the years ahead. The manuscript can be viewed at: http://www.scribd.com/pmoore_12.

We were also privilege to thank everyone who participated on one of the three Property Purchase Task Forces last night. Those three Task Forces are a testament to the collaborative nature of the Presbyterian church. When we work together well, we can do powerful ministry as Presbyterians.

Thanks also to Jerry Hermsen who gave very warm greetings to Chain of Lakes New Church from Crown Cove Association.

After the Celebration many people stayed around and enjoyed the beauty of the evening and ate ice cream. We took a picture of the people from Chain of Lakes New Church just in front of the new cross that we put up this past week.

It was a great night with great people at a great place! Praise God!