What Do You Have?

Last Sunday's sermon used the text, Mark 6:31-44, 8:1-9, the feeding of the multitude.

This is a familiar story of Jesus teaching to thousands beside the Sea of Galilee. After many hours the disciples became concerned that people were hungry and they hadn't enough to feed them all. Jesus answered "What do you have?"  The answer was five loaves and two fish.  From these meagre offerings, five thousand men were fed.

Sunday was also the date of our Annual Congregational Meeting. We hustled through the dry business of receiving and approving reports. The meeting could have been wound up in half an hour. But then we started the "thank yous" and the list went on and on.

We are a small congregation so it is easy to focus on what we lack, but using Jesus' question "what do you have," we discovered that we have many gifts. 

• To begin, we have food and fellowship in abundance. The potluck lunch not only fed everyone present but resulted in baskets of leftovers. The Friendship Coffee on the second and fourth Thursday of the month is a highlight for many.
• We are a church with a heart for mission. Year after year, the congregation gives more to missions than is called for in the budget.
• We have people willing to stand for session, shouldering the day-to-day responsibilities of running the business of the congregation.
• We have pastoral carers, people who make time in their lives to visit hurting members of the congregation. The Sunshine Lunch is another volunteer event that provides a meal for singles in our congregation, along with rides to the church and home again for those who need them.
• We have a secretary who goes above and beyond without complaint.
• We have a choir and music director who practice every Thursday in order to enhance worship Sunday after Sunday.
• We have quiet volunteers who run the sound system, manage the blog, and respond to prayer requests.
• The members of our property committee give many hours of work to keep the building and grounds in good repair.
• We are grateful to have a minister who enables, encourages, teaches, preaches and counsels with insight and knowledge.

   What do we have? A Saviour who died for us. A Holy Spirit that moves among us. A Heavenly Father who created us. We have love for one another.

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