"A NEW THING"

“Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.” (Isaiah 43:19)

This morning, my wife Mary Ann needed to go spend time with a family member who is ill. Rather than drive up to the church in Westminster where we’ve been attending, I decided to join my son Jon and daughter Rachel at the predominantly African-American Greater Framingham Community Church in downtown Framingham. I think I’ve written about GFCC once or twice in the past on this blog. Their facility at Franklin and Park Sts. in downtown Framingham was the main Framingham Post Office MANY years ago. The church did a magnificent remodeling job on the building and it’s really got a spectacular modern sanctuary.

Like many African-American churches, GFCC is a mix of the old and the new. I find that predominantly Black evangelical churches are much more into tradition than are their predominantly white counterparts. Whereas the dress and worship style has become extremely casual in many white evangelical churches, and there’s all sorts of power point presentations and multimedia stuff, at GFCC, you’re handed a printed program of the order of worship, announcements, etc. There’s no power point or even use of an overhead projector. Words of the choruses are printed in your program, and the church still sings a few hymns out of the hymnal. (Many predominantly white evangelical churches retired the hymnals somewhere in the mid-1990s.)

My son very much DISLIKES all the power point and multimedia stuff in churches today, so the more traditional Protestant church format of a program and hymnals is to his liking. Honestly, I can go with EITHER way; but I’ve gotta admit, I prefer the traditional. Black churches do much that’s traditional, but keep in mind their worship style is anything BUT boring! Today was Youth Sunday or as the church called it, “Youth Jam”. The regular Senior Pastor, The Rev. J. Anthony Lloyd is on some time off for the summer. Today’s preacher was an associate pastor there who also works full-time in construction: The Rev. Courtney Lackard. Mr. Lackard is not QUITE as charismatic and dynamic as is J. Anthony Lloyd, but he IS a very good speaker, and has a good sense of humor. I tend to like Old Testament sermons, and this one was from I Kings 18: the confrontation of the Prophet Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. That’s where the Scripture asks, “How long will you FALTER between two opinions?” Lackard explained that the word for “falter” there is the Hebrew “pesach” from which we get “Passover”. It CAN mean “pass over”, but it can also mean “limp”, “halter”, “falter” or “waver”. Lackard said his whole sermon could be summed up in one sentence: “It’s time to stop limpin’ and to start standin’ .”

The preacher talked about the worldliness of most of today’s Christians...that we have so many false gods in our lives, like money, and cars, and even our kids. He explained that he’s struggled much with “limpin’” in his own Christian life. I can appreciate that. I have. He challenged us, as Elijah challenged the Israelites all those thousands of years ago, to really put God first in our lives and quit selling out to the world. It was a powerful sermon!

I called this piece “A New Thing”. That’s because we sang a chorus at church today which was new to all of us. The words are as follows:

“I will do a new thing in you;
I will do a new thing in you.
Whatever you ask for, whatever you pray for,
Nothing shall be denied,” saith the Lord.

I liked the chorus. Listen, I know, I know, that chorus HAS to be understood in light of Scripture. You can’t pray to become the best bank robber in Massachusetts or to be able to successfully cheat people as a salesman and expect God to answer.

The theme of the service, especially focusing on the youth, is on what God wants to do TODAY and TOMORROW and that we should NOT focus on the past.

The preacher talked about how many people have lost their jobs and have found themselves in very difficult places where they’ve been angry with God and questioned God. Well, I can relate to that. The focus was that God is on His throne and if we’ll seek Him, trust Him, and obey Him, He will see us through, and WILL do a new thing in each if us that does that.

There’s a lot of talent at GFCC. Two youth mime groups performed. A youth choir sang. A young woman read a beautiful and wonderful poem she has written which is worthy of publication.

You don’t have to be Black to attend GFCC. I’d say there were at least twenty other Caucasians there in church today, and I saw a young Asian woman there, as well. The church is very welcoming. If you’re a first time visitor, they want you to get up and give a greeting. (As my daughter Rachel says, “If you don’t want to have to speak publicly, DON’T let anybody know you’re a first time visitor!”)

I got a lot out of my time at Greater Framingham Community Church today and I just wanted to share that!