I have decided to dedicate this first Thanksgiving post to our local church. As many of you may know, Laura and I were extremely weary of finding a new church home when coming to CA. We have both been blessed in our churches back home in MS (and we still miss you all!), and we knew we could never find such churches again. In the first few weeks of visiting churches in the Bay, God showed us that He is definitely at work among his people here! We were introduced to excited, vibrant churches with Spirit-filled worship and solid teaching. Things were looking up for the Reynolds' church hunt. After several weeks of visiting, I contacted a church which was searching for seminary students to do ministry; since Laura and I wanted to be involved in our church, we thought this was necessary. The church was a Mandarin (Chinese) church with an English ministry in the city. After a brief talk with the pastor, we decided to visit a Sunday service.
Upon arriving at the church, we were immediately welcomed by members of the church. But these weren't just the "greeters" of the church...these were the youth of the church! Now how many churches have youth which are openly willing to greet visitors?!? This surprised us both. During the "shaking-of-the-hands time" (an odd tradition which is always held by a good Baptist church), we could hardly find our seats through the eager greeters! The service proceeded into a time of contemporary worship consisting of awesome songs which I haven't sung since 7th grade (and I'm NOT complaining). After the service, the church went into its traditional time of refreshments (every church should have refreshments...nothing like donuts and bagels to help me get my praise on). Then, Laura and I went to the college class and enjoyed the fellowship of young leaders learning about the Lord. Since this day, the church has elected me and Laura to head-up this fellowship (which has been incredibly rewarding......by the way, I use ALOT of interjections in my writing, just to let you know). Finally, to tap off the day, the English and Mandarin ministry join together in Chinese meal....and I don't mean that Americanized Chinese stuff. It's great.
Now that I have gone through a typical Sunday service at our church, I will list the reasons why I am thankful for this church:
1) I am the minority. I somehow find it refreshing that I am the "odd man out" in this congregation. It reminds me daily that the world is not a white, middle-classed society of Southern men.
2) The leadership of this church is both loving and bibically sound. While this may seem to be a given, this is actually rare in our modern "church" culture.
3) Refreshments are awesome.
4) Even though we are the minority, we are loved and accepted in this church. We have never felt left out in any aspect of this church. We truly feel at home there.
5) We are challenged to be ministers for Christ. Many seminary students ignore the ministry while being students, but we thank God that this church challenges us to use what God is teaching us.
So, on behalf of Laura and me, thank you San Francisco Mandarin Baptist Church for standing in the gap and serving the relocated people of San Francisco. You are doing a ministry which is deeply needed in a country where the nations are gathering. We are proud to be a part of your ministry in reaching the nations.
In Christ,
Steve and Laura
Good post. It made me cry some because, while I am happy that things are falling into place, I miss you guys like crazy. I never thought that I would miss the annual Thanksgiving fight with Stephen.
ReplyDelete