“Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full.'” (Luke 14:23 NIV84).
After 19 years of being the portable church, we closed on the former Regal Cinema property on September 30, 2010. Today, marks the one year anniversary of that miraculous purchase. After only seven months of work, we moved in and made it the new home of Wilson Community Church.
We are thankful to God for all that He has done. The long wait for having a place to call home has made it all the sweeter.
The years of being portable not only makes finally having a home sweeter, but it also trained us that the church is not the building. As we’ve said for years, “The church is the people, not the steeple.”
I think God gave us those 19 years as preparation for the work He has for us in this city. We are not to be the church that stays indoors. Sure, we’re going to use the building for everything we can, but we are going to keep going out into the city to touch people for Christ’s sake.
This time a year ago we were looking at a rundown property in the middle of the city. We were hoping that we could make it our home. We saw God perform numerous miracles in our church to clear the way.
We have worked hard getting the property cleaned up and remodeled. A lot of our focus and effort has rightfully been on this. Those of us that are gifted in such things should continue to work on maintaining and improving our new home.
But let’s not become myopic in our mission for this city. Let’s keep taking it to the streets, telling people about Jesus!
That’s why we have two events planned this Fall for outreach. One, is the Trunk or Treat event which we’ll have in the parking lot on Halloween. We’re praying that this event will draw 1,000 visitors. The other event is the Whirligig booth that we’ll run the first weekend of November in downtown Wilson. Over 20,000 people attend this event every year. We want to be in the middle of this opportunity, telling people about Jesus and also raising money for the Hope Station (A homeless shelter and food pantry in Wilson).
If we don’t keep going out, then it’s like we wasted the 19 years of training. Let’s keep going out and doing everything we can to “make them” come in to God’s kingdom!