We're going to experience a unique and special service this Sunday at LFC-Huntersville! You may recall that our Elder Dr. Bill Hammill and I made a trip to Mexico this spring to explore a church planting partnership between our denomination (EPC) and the Mexican Presbyterian Church (vibrant mission-oriented denomination that is millions strong). Three pastors I met with there who are the leaders of the MPC - Pastors: Hernández, Job and Vazquez - have come to Charlotte to visit Lake Forest on their way to greeting our denominational gathering next week (called 'General Assembly').
We've crafted a service that includes some Spanish-language worship elements and I think it is going to be a beautiful blending of God's church. I can't wait! Those guys will be with us this Sunday.Then they will tour our local ministry partners to our Spanish-speaking neighbors, and do the same with St. Giles EPC's ministry in the South Boulevard corridor of Charlotte on Monday. (photo at the MPC seminary in Mexico City in February)
My goals for this weekend's visit are: to encourage these Mexican Christian leaders that American Christians love them and are one in Christ with them; for LFC to be spurred on to greater mission vitality by the Mexican believers' excellent example; for the friendship between LFC leadership and MPC leadership to be used by God to get our denominational partnership off on 'the right foot;' and for LFC-Huntersville to have a worshipful BLAST experimenting with bi-lingual worship on Sunday!
- If you do NOT attend LFC-Huntersville: would you pray, as you read this, for those goals?
- If you are part of the LFC-Huntersville tribe - BRING IT on Sunday: engage wholeheartedly in the singing, reciting of the Lord's prayer, and translations back and forth between English and Spanish. I especially call you to 'try on' singing portions of the worship songs in Spanish, as a gesture of hospitality to our weekend guests, but also as a form of asking God to build a hospitable attitude in you toward the ever-growing number of new Spanish-speaking neighbors in N. Mecklenburg County. We plan to serve such neighbors by planting a church that sings and teaches the Bible initially in their heart-language.
I pray for myself this Sunday to view our worship through the lens of God's ultimate vision for His eternal Kingdom - that we are pulling just a bit of that future into the present together this Sunday:
Revelation 7:9, 10
After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice:
“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.”
