If you line up with God’s mission to the Church to further His Kingdom (Matthew 28:19, Acts 1:8), you will inevitably face opposition. Whether it be physical ailments, mental obstruction, or spiritual second guessing, The enemy will do anything to try to disrupt the work of God in and through us.
This past weekend we publicly launched our third campus (Sewickley Valley) at North Way. With two soft launches behind us, there were still issues we were working through to resolve. Over the past few weeks we have had everything from illness and family deaths to major technical malfunctions. Even the countdown clock that has been running flawlessly for over a month stopped 23 hours short. These events of opposition can cause you to question and wear on any individual to the point of wanting to give up. But in the face of opposition, the Church can rise up in the name of Christ.
This weekend, North Way Christian Community | Sewickley Valley was launched with hundreds of people eager to hear The Word of God. The struggles that preceded this weekend were nothing but memories to me as I watched a portable sanctuary full of people worshiping our Savior. Sure, there were flaws that will be corrected in the weeks to come, but they didn’t matter in that moment because the Spirit of the Lord was there. The Word of God was read without shame and His name was was proclaimed.
But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:16-18 (emphasis added)
The mission of North Way happened this weekend in three campuses. People were Free to Follow Jesus.
If I leave one thing on your mind from this post, I hope it is this: Don’t face opposition alone. We as The Church are called a body for a reason. We aren’t meant to face the enemy as our own individual part.