By Greg Yee, Superintendent, PacNWC
We missed those of you that were unable to be at our 128th Annual Meeting at Newport Covenant, Bellevue this past weekend. We had 45 of our 78 churches present to celebrate ministry, new work, new ordinands, and the faithful service of President Gary Walter and our Associate Superintendent Don Robinson as they approach retirement. Attendees received a bounty of resources that you and your church will find valuable [Click Here] for the Annual Meeting Highlights. [Click Here] for the Annual Meeting Resource Sheet. Please make plans for next year’s meeting that will be at West Hills in Portland.
Though I left our weekend together grateful on multiple levels, I want to share that I also left concerned and a bit out of sorts. First, I think we can use our time better. Our team wants to take a new look at our annual gatherings and reimagine how we can get necessary business done, but create something different for us as a regional family. We don’t know what this will exactly look like yet, but we’re convinced that it must happen. Stay tuned!
Second, I realize how much I hunger to worship God and for there to be revival in me and among us. Like farmers that experience an especially bountiful harvest, I long for you in/through your churches and for us together as a region to experience a bounty of people turning their lives over to Jesus and transformation to be realized on many fronts. But it feels like low-tide and wet sand in too many places. This weighs heavy. Friends, worship God with your whole selves. Grow houses of prayer and worship. I do believe that worship naturally leads to mission. And I believe that greater and more wholistic worship leads to greater fruitfulness – higher tide and waves of Spirit movement.
Lastly, I am taken back to our annual meeting theme, “Spring Forth – Confiando en Dios para nuevas frutas!” from Jeremiah 17:7-8
But blessed are those who trust in the LORD and have made the LORD their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green and they never stop producing fruit.
We cannot control when the heat comes. We cannot control when the drought overwhelms. But this prophetic balm speaks into the heat and drought we experience today. It has seemed like life-choking times on so many fronts. But we are people planted by streams of water with our roots going deep as we say “yes Lord” each day and in each situation. We lay down our nets to follow Jesus. We do not walk away sad because of how much Jesus asks of us, but we surrender all to him.
PacNWC Family, I walk away from the annual meeting filled with gratitude, nagged by concerns, but finding solid ground on our Rock whom we can stand upright. God of hope, God of mercy, lead us into your ways!