Last night, I handed my last Sterling Pres business card to my neighbor.
It was a surreal moment when I grabbed that card and realized that there were none behind it. I realized that with that card, I was symbolically giving away the last of my days with this precious church. I got those cards when I first came to Sterling. The title under my name was "Associate," because I was not yet a pastor at the church.
It seems increasingly likely that the next big transition is coming for the Roberts household. It feels a bit like being swept up in the gale of God's providence. One by one, various possibilities are falling away like dominoes, and we are left to tread into the unknown.
It was almost four years ago that the gale of God's providence surprisingly swept us into Sterling church. I had preached there for the better part of six months, but there was no way that a church of about two dozen would call a second pastor. Thankfully, the Lord provided them with a visionary senior pastor and a session and body eager to follow.
The band room has been replaced by the auditorium as our sanctuary, and the scattered instruments have given way to people gathered from all walks of life.
We may not have grown to 200 people, or planted a church or two, as I would have liked. Instead, we grew the old fashioned way--the best way--simply by the grace of God. Not just the church, but me as well.
While the church, like every other, has its share of struggles, it is markedly healthy--with an ever-deepening body of believers and a steady stream of visitors--both believers and unbelievers--who come through and find themselves drawn to God's Word and loved by His people. If once a year, we--like the politicians--had a "State of the Communion" speech, it would be glowing with grace.
Over the past several years, this church has been a constant in a life marked by a scary surgery, the birth of one child, the trauma of separation and deployment, the birth of another child, and financial uncertainty. Now the Lord, in His wise providence, seems to be removing that constant, and I believe we are ready.
Thank you, Lord, for a million gracious providences. They fell upon us like manna and fed our weary hearts, though we often weren't looking for them. Our faith is fed by Your faithfulness to us in Christ, and we are full. Onward and upward!
