Growing Pains
When I was, 25 years old, I was 6 foot 2. I'm shorter now for some reason, but must've included my hair in those days, but I was 6 foot 2, and I weighed £100 and about £38. That's skinny, it used to hate to be that way. So I decided, that's it, I'm gonna gain weight now, that's not a problem, but in those days, I had to really work at it, eat 5 times a day, all kinds of special shakes with yeast and stuff in it, eggs and whatever, and I used to go work out. In those days, the gym was called Vic Tannies, remember that?
Vic Tannies, some of the older people remember that. And I'd work out 3, 4 times a week, run miles and miles and pump all that iron, you know, and do all that stuff, and we gained £20, £30. And there was a guy there that was helping me work out. He was a trainer and he'd help me. And he was a masochist, you know, he loved to see me.
One more. Five more reps. Come on. You can do it. You can do it.
You know. And I was bleeding from the nose. And go ahead. You can do it. And he used to say, Michael, do you really wanna gain, you know, body bulk?
You just you wanna bulk up? You know. Yeah. I do. You know.
He said, well, there's no growth without pain, he said. There's no growth without pain. You have to pay the price. And it was true. I'd run and work out until I was sick enough to, you know, be sick.
And it wasn't a workout unless it hurt bad, really hurt bad, or you couldn't move your arms. You couldn't I couldn't even lift my my arms to comb my hair after the workout. You know, I'd have to lower my head down and just no growth without pain. This saying is true in many areas of life. In sports, of course, no growth without pain, gotta work.
In music, my daughter's learning the piano, and when she stumbles over a passage over and over and over and over again, till she's sick of it, to be able to play that passage smoothly without any mistakes. No growth without pain in intellectual pursuits. You want those As, you want those to be an honors student, whatever, No growth without pain. No growth without pain in relationships. Yeah.
We all want loving relationships. We want to be close, we want to be tight, we want to be intimate. No matter what the relationship, boyfriend girlfriend in junior high to a 50 year marriage relationship, there is no growth without some kind of pain. We know that improvement requires sacrifice. This principle was true, 20 years ago or 30 years ago, when I was a young man trying to gain weight, gain strength.
And it was true 2000 years ago when the early church was beginning and developing and growing. You know, the church established by Jesus and the apostles had to endure persecution as well as the threat of division and sustain its unity in order to grow, in order to develop. I believe that this axiom, no growth without pain, is also true of our story right here in Choctaw, Oklahoma in 1998. We have the opportunity to grow here, and I really mean that. That's not just preacher talk.
We really do have the opportunity to grow, especially in 3 areas, but it won't happen without pain. And so this morning, I'd like to share with you some of the gains that we are on the verge of achieving, and the price of pain that we're going to have to pay if we're going to achieve those gains. Couple of things. First of all, the most obvious thing, the thing that's on everybody's mind, the most obvious opportunity for growth is our new and improved building plan. And some of you may be saying, boy, he's been talking about that thing for so long, and I've been giving money to this thing for so long.
Nothing's happening. But as you know, a lot of things have been happening behind the scenes, and Dave gave me a sheet today, an update on the building. There's our key area of growth, one of them anyways. And he's just informed me that all of our fees have been paid for to architects and agents in the city and so on and so forth. Federal, state, local regulations have been completed.
And a meeting was held with the city and the site review board this past Friday. The city came here and looked around and looked at Dave's plans and all that stuff. And all the plans and the revisions and the retention plans, the fire alarm requirements, emergency lighting, new electrical improvements, all that stuff was looked at and reviewed and he was questioned just like he was passing a master's thesis and they questioned it. And we're happy to say that we passed the questioning, and we now have our building permit. Church, say amen.
Amen. Took a year and a lot of work on his behalf. If you appreciate Dave Roberts, say amen. Amen. Our final step is to deliver the documentation now to the bank, and the bank will now review all of that documentation and approve the loan that they have already promised to give us, but they have to look at our plans, and that's it, that's the last step.
So it's in the hands of the bank people, and as soon as they're done with it, you're gonna start seeing bricks come off the walls, and equipment in here, and the actual construction is going to start. So we're a couple of weeks away from that. Please pray that all will go well. And some of this weather holds now. Now we want it not to rain.
Oh boy, here we go. Okay, so the building, that's the first area, opportunity for gain. And we'll have exceptional advantages when this project is done. We'll have larger and cleaner classrooms, more rooms, larger areas, and all the existing classes will be painted and recarpeted. We'll be able to have 50 people in a classroom to do all kinds of things in our small group program and in the youth program and in our junior program.
We'll have a new and a larger fellowship hall. Now, if you want to have fellowship, we can't have the whole church in the building, or if there's a wedding, or if there's a special project, we can only fit, what, 60, 70 people back there and everybody's jammed together to eat. New fellowship hall, 200 people will be able to sit there. And we'll have a new serving area where the food will be served, you know, those roll top dividers on the counter, and the people who are serving in a brand new modern kitchen in the back. Imagine those of you planning weddings and receptions and anniversaries, and we'll be able to do all those great things, those fellowship activities in our new fellowship hall.
And a beautiful and new and updated foyer area to be able to welcome guests. First impression when people walk in, it'll be gorgeous when it's done. And an expanded auditorium, all the pews will be recovered and repaired, new carpeting and new lighting system and a new stage area, a much larger stage area. We'll have live plants back here, and I mean it'll be gorgeous. We'll have skylights up here, there'll be skylights, let in the natural light.
More seats. TV monitors in the back hung from the ceiling, so people that are in the back can actually see clearly what's going on up here in the front. And up here in the front, there'll be a 12 foot screen and computerized images to be able to put, the songs and the readings, the outlines right up here on the back. And everything will be repainted and redecorated. And the new bathrooms that will really be handicap accessible, really they will be handicap accessible, the new bathrooms, and we'll have more of them.
And we'll have a nursery in a different part of the building. And in that nursery, there'll be a television, closed circuit TV, so the moms in there can be seeing what's going on in here without having to get up and look through the window. And the moms, we're talking about giving each mom that leaves a child there a little beeper that she can carry on her, and if there's a problem with the child or something, then the nursery attendant can beep the mom on vibe mode and alert the mom to come on in. So moms will feel comfortable about leaving their children in the nursery and be able to come in here. All kinds of things.
New administration offices, new offices, more work rooms, the mission work area, library, teachers' work area, reception area. And the outside of the building will be changed as well, better parking, handicap access, the landscaping will be changed, there'll be a new roof, all kinds of things that could go on for a half hour. We will have the most functional, most modern, most beautiful meeting place in our area that will accommodate of upwards, to 500 people. You know, on Memorial Road in Oklahoma City, they experienced a 15% growth 1 month after their renovations were over. They built a brand new auditorium and so on and so forth, cost them $4,000,000 to accommodate 1500 people because they had grown.
That was about a year ago. And they reached their goal in 1 month, 1 month after they had built. They were already obsolete. And last week at Memorial Road, they had to go to 2 services. The first service had 900 people, the second service had 1200 people.
You see, I wanna just tell you that people are supportive and encouraged when they see the church is not afraid to step out and do great things. I know that the church is not the building, I know that, and you know that. But the building says something about the church. I know that too. It says, Man, these people are not afraid.
They're not afraid to step out in faith. We want to honor God with sincere and joyful worship with as many souls present as possible, and this project that we're working on is a step in that direction. That's what that is. That's the good part. That's the growth part.
Remember I told you there's no growth without pain? Well, there's a pain part too to this growth. Here's the type of pain that is going to be necessary to achieve what we're First of all, it's expensive. Construction is expensive, especially in this you know, we're in a boom time. Those of you people who are in the construction industry, you know what I'm talking about.
I was talking to Dana Wilkerson yesterday as we were paddling down the Illinois River, and he told me that he's got more work than he can handle. He has to refuse work. You try to get a contractor in to do something for you in this day and age. They're so busy, they don't need your job. Imagine the job this size, well when they decide to do it, they're gonna charge top dollar, so it's expensive.
You know, we had a budget of about $500,000 for this project. That was last year. This year, we'll probably go over that. But that's not gonna stop us. We're gonna have to be faithful to our pledges.
We're gonna have to resist the temptation to fall back at this time. And some people who've not yet given to this project will have to decide to come on board finally. Hey, you're gonna enjoy the new pews too, you know. You're gonna have to get on board and say, Yeah, I'm part of this. Another painful thing about this project is it's gonna be messy.
It's gonna be messy. We're gonna have a mess before it's all over. And we're gonna need to be patient when parking becomes a problem. Right now, you've got your little parking spot. If I arrive at 9:0:2, I get my parking spot.
Yeah. And I get my pew. You better give it up on that, get my parking spot and get my pew business because that's not gonna be happening in a little while. You're not gonna have your parking spot because there may be no cement there. And you may not have your pew because half of those pews back there are disappearing for a while.
There's gonna be a false wall back there to permit construction of the new foyer for the time being. So we're all gonna be sitting in different places and we're gonna be squeezed together. There's there's going to be noise, there's going to be dust everywhere. You're going to need to cooperate with the construction people. And our routine and our comfort will be disrupted.
And we're gonna have to resist the temptation to go on over to Nakoma Park for a while. And we're also gonna need your help to assist. A lot of people, you know, when we said we're gonna do this project, say, oh, call on me, I'm gonna help. You want somebody to remove brick? Yeah, I'm gonna help.
We're gonna have to do all kinds of things because we're gonna have to save some money. Some things we can't do. We have to hire a professional, you know, and pay for it. But there are some things we can do ourselves. You know, we can remove brick, we can do some of the, you know, knocking down the walls, whatever.
So when Dave comes up here and says, I need 5 men to do x, that would be your time to step up to the plate. No more talking here. Action time. And when he says I need 5 men to step up to the plate, he doesn't mean 3 women and 2 teenagers, he means 5 men. You're gonna have to give up a weekend of golf or whatever you do to serve the Lord.
Our goal is to finish this project by this time next year. That's our long range goal because next year is gonna be our 60th anniversary here at Choctaw. 60 years, this congregation has been established in September of 19, what would it be, 99. And we plan on a tremendous, tremendous anniversary, joyful gathering. We're gonna have people from the past, preachers that have preached here, and all that kind of good stuff.
We're gonna have a tremendous celebration. We're gonna have the mayor. We're gonna have everybody here, But we're gonna have to have everybody's help to make our goal. We're not gonna have the glory on that day if we're not willing to put up with the grief in the year to come. No glory without a little grief.
Another area of growth, aside from the building program, is our education program. As our congregation has grown the last few years, we've increased on our ability to teach god's word to more people in more different ways and more effectively than ever before. At this point in our history, we're poised for tremendous growth in our education program. You see, with the renovation of the building, we'll be able to offer more subjects, more classes, greater potential to invite our friends and family. You know, you got a brand new church building and 15, 20 different types of classes.
You wanna invite people to that. And our attendance in bible class is growing the last couple of years, number of people being involved in teaching and leading groups and organizing fellowship events and youth activities, all of this is on the increase. But this growth, to sustain this kind of growth, requires a certain amount of pain, a certain amount of adjustment. Our teachers, for example, and our coordinators have to work harder at Our teachers, for example, and our coordinators have to work harder at preparing their classes. People will come once or twice out of curiosity.
Yeah, sure, I'll come see your new building and, yeah, I'll come see what's going on. But they won't stay if the teaching is not well done. They won't stay if they're not learning anything. If they don't leave here, They won't stay if they're not learning anything. If they don't leave here and say, Boy, I learned something today that I didn't know, they're not gonna stay.
Our members have to make some changes in their habits if our education program is to grow. Those who come to bible class, for example, need to begin inviting friends and encouraging others. I mean, if what you're doing is you're steady, steady eddy, you know, you come in Sunday morning, you come on Wednesday night, you come Sunday, you're steady eddy. If that's where you're at in your Christian development, then you have to add something to that. Maybe you ought to start inviting somebody.
The worst thing in the world is to invite somebody and you not show up. I've seen that happen. Yeah. I came because Joe invited me. Well, you know where Joe is?
Well, he's not here this weekend. Oh, boy. And those who don't come on a regular basis, maybe you need to take a step forward too and start coming on a regular basis. See what I'm saying? Everybody's got a step to take.
It's not the same step for everybody, but everybody's got a step to take if we're gonna grow. You know, the bible class experience is the number one way to improve your bible knowledge, and that improved bible knowledge leads to strengthened faith and hope. That's what Paul is talking about in Romans chapter 10 verse 17 when he says that faith comes by hearing. Faith comes by hearing. When your faith is strengthened, your hope is strengthened.
And when your hope is strengthened, your joy is strengthened as well. But it works in that sequence. You can't have the hope and the joy of heaven if your faith isn't strong, and you can't have strong faith unless you hear God's word on a regular basis. Bible class experience is also the number one way to begin and build relationships with other Christian people. You know, 5 years ago, we set a goal that our attendance for bible school and worship would regularly be 200 for Bible school, 300 for worship.
It's taken us 5 years to get there. If you look at the numbers over a quarterly period, we consistently go over 200. See, what is it? 207. We consistently go over 200 for bible class and we consistently go over 300 for worship.
That was our goal 5 years ago. Well, we have a new goal. The next plateau is to have 250 for bible study and 350 for worship. And I have something very interesting to tell you. We do not have to have a single convert to Christianity to reach that goal because we have the potential of over 400 people being here at every service, so we don't have to convert anybody, we don't have to bring anybody new in.
In order to have 250 people for bible class and 350 people for worship, all we have to do is get more of our own members to be more faithful to the assembly. That's all it takes. And we need you to be able to do that. Being regular for bible class and worship is the kindergarten of Christianity. It's the kindergarten, it's the ABCs, coming to church on a regular basis.
That's the ABC of Christianity. And you know what? Some people, some people are not even at kindergarten yet. We need to get them there. And some people are in kindergarten, they've been there for years.
We need to move them out of kindergarten and get them on to something else. That's the pain involved in growing as far as our numbers, as far as our education is concerned. We need to mature. We need to make up our minds that we're gonna choose first the kingdom, seek first the kingdom. Not the world, not our own entertainment.
First the kingdom, and then other things will follow. And then very quickly, a third thing here as I close out. And that is our potential for outreach. 3rd area of growth. Now these are real areas I'm talking about.
I just didn't sit down and say, Gee, I wonder I wonder what I could do here. No. I I looked at what we are doing and I said to myself, what are the 3 most potentially explosive areas in our congregation? Well, the building project, that was a no brainer. That's right there.
But then I looked and I said, yeah, education, certainly. And this is the third one. This one came to me. We have a great facility, we have wonderful teaching and fellowship programs, but one thing that remains, and that is to get the word out of this building into our community. Well, you know what?
It seems that when we demonstrate our faith, when we demonstrate our willingness to step out in the name of the Lord, God blesses us with an opportunity. I've known that all my Christian lives. You ever notice that? The minute you say, I'm ready, Lord, all of a sudden something happens. You know, Ruth, in the Old Testament, she stepped out in faith to follow her mother-in-law, thereby giving up almost any hope of finding a husband.
And what happens? God blesses her with a husband, and not only that, but with the privilege of being the descendant of the great king David. What an opportunity. And Paul the Apostle stepped out in faith to preach to the Gentiles against against the opposition of his countrymen and many of those in the church. And what happened?
He was the one responsible for spreading the gospel to the entire Roman Empire. Well, you know what? Such an opportunity has been given to us here in Choctaw recently. That's if we are willing to step out in faith and take it. You see, I wish, I wish things happened like you do one thing and you finish that one thing, and then this other thing happens, and you get to do that thing, and you finish that thing.
And then another thing happens. But it didn't work like that. You're in the middle of one thing and all of a sudden another thing happens. You haven't finished the one thing yet, the second thing happens. And you're figuring, Lord, I I got 2 things going here and I couldn't possibly handle another one.
And then all of a sudden, another one happens. I'm not gonna try for a 4th, if you know what I mean. I mean, we're in the middle of a building program, we're stretched to the max. We got over 50 people teaching, leading groups, and what happens? My phone rings one day.
And on the other end of the line is a guy named John Clark, and he's a brother in the Lord, but he is also a salesman, a sales rep, for a television station, a new one here in Oklahoma City, KOPX, channel 52, and it'll be 62 if you don't have cable. And he represents a new network. I don't know if you've heard about it, Pax Net, the Pax Television Network. The Pax Television Network is going to be the first family friendly network to show wholesome entertainment 24 hours a day throughout the United States. No, violence, I mean, you know, gratuitous violence or sex, no pro gay stuff, nothing like that, no Ellen stuff, nothing like that.
Their commitment is you can sit and watch this station 24 hours a day and not be offended by anything that takes place. The owner of this network, it's owned by one man, Paxton is his name, is an evangelical, I believe, Christian. And, he owns all of the TV stations across the United States. That's his advantage. He owns all of the he owns 80 stations across the United States.
So he owns the whole network. He can do what he wants. He doesn't have to answer to a board or anything. Well, that station here, k o p x here in Oklahoma City, launched about a week ago. And this fellow called me up and he says, Michael, I have an offer to make to you because he knows my background in television.
He says, I'll give you one half hour of television time for $350, half hour, if you will produce a religious program for our station that will be aired once a week. Now, again, I don't know if you know it, but $350 is like dirt cheap. I mean, you couldn't buy an ad that big in the daily Oklahoma for $350. To give you an idea, when I was in Canada producing a television program 13 years or 15 years ago, a program plus airtime cost $5,000 and that was that was 13 years ago. Well, I said, alright, I'll talk to my elders and I'll talk to some other congregations, and so I designed a program.
It's all on paper, nothing shot yet, and the title of the program is this. It's entitled Inside the Church of Christ. Inside the Church of Christ. And this is what the program will be like. Each week, I, as the host, will bring the viewer inside the building where the church of Christ meets, to give the viewer the experience of what it is like to come and worship with us, to come and to be part of one of our small groups, to come and be part of one of our classes, to come and be part of our youth group, be part of our ladies group, to listen to interviews with our ministry leaders and our elders and other people who are involved in the church.
Some weeks, the viewer will just see me teaching a straight ahead bible class like I do in the auditorium on Wednesday nights. Other weeks, we'll go to other congregations and we'll visit, say, the east side congregation. We'll be on location at the east side congregation and we'll bring the viewer inside the east side church of Christ to see their service and to meet their minister and to talk about their program so their community will know what is going on. Throughout the program, we're going to provide interviews with ministry leaders and opportunities for correspondence courses and other different services that the church offers. Although we will feature other congregations and other ministries, I, as the host, and this congregation will provide continuity from week to week.
In other words, they'll see me from week to week and most of the most of the time, it'll be our classes and our worship service that people will be getting a part of, a view of. Our media crew here in the congregation, you know, Bob Aldridge and Bobby Chilton and Jim Shepherd, the others that work with our media stuff, they're gonna help out with this. But because it requires professional broadcast quality equipment, which we don't own, we have subcontracted the program to a, a producer here in Oklahoma City, Michael Moore, and he, with TBR productions of Oklahoma. Each program will cost $500 to video or to tape and 350 to air on the air. That's $850 per program.
Like I said, 13 years ago, it was costing me $5,000 a week to air the show. Today, it costs 8.50 because this production crew is young, they are hungry for the business, they gave us a great deal, and they are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ so they want this program to be here. A lot of gain here. Think about it. In addition to the 300 people who hear the word each week, we can also add the TV attendance to that number.
What if I told you we could get a 1,000 guests on a Sunday morning to come and worship with us? Wouldn't you be excited about that? A 1,000 extra people, they'd be lined up, they'd be sitting on the stage, we'd have to open up the doors, they'd be all the way out into the parking lot. What if I said to you, how about 5,000 people come and hear the same sermon you hear, the same bible class that you're having, hear the same announcements about the different programs, the ladies thing, the prison ministry, the same thing, but 5,000 people. Would you be excited, man?
That's what TV can do. Our own community will be able to see what goes on inside the building. The Choctaw community, in Harrah, Newalla, Nacoma Park. Don't you think that will motivate them to maybe come and visit in person, if they get a glimpse first on TV of what's going on? And we'll be able to promote unity among the churches of Christ here in the city and help other churches promote their congregations in their communities.
Great things, tremendous things that can take place, but there's pain involved. No major outreach, no increased visibility comes without pain. Are we ready for that pain? You know, more people to care. You know, more people come to the church, that's more people we gotta take care of.
Are we ready for that? Are we ready to teach more people? Are we ready to visit more people? Are we ready to bind the wounds of more people? You always say, We wanna grow.
Don't you realize, growth means we have to serve more people. Are we ready for that? Visibility also increases our vulnerability. You know, Satan doesn't like a city on a hill, a bright and shining light. Are we ready to take more hits, more criticism because we'll become more visible?
Think about it now. The sermon that you hear on Sunday through television, your neighbors may be hearing the same sermon. You may go to work and say, You know, I watched that program on Sunday. You know, one of your friends at work said, You know, I watched that program on Sunday that comes from your church. And I heard that sermon.
And now I'm watching you to see if you live it up to that sermon. Are we ready for that? And then the last painful thing is this: television costs money. Although we're getting an incredibly cheap price, this program, for 6 months, would cost over $20,000. I mean, that's ridiculously cheap, but it's still $23,000.
Now other churches, and I've called about 10 churches in the area, they've said they'd be willing to help, they'll think about it, they'll you know, I'm visiting a couple of elderships and presenting the program, showing some videotape, and so on and so forth. And they're thinking maybe they'll help us do this because we'll go to their church and promote their church on TV. And eventually, I think we may be able to get it into our regular budget, maybe next year, maybe the year after, if it works. But for the 1st 6 months, we have to raise the money through gifts and offerings right here in Choctaw. Now the elders have permitted me to make the following request.
I went to them first, I presented this idea, and I said, What do you think? And they said, If you can get our own members interested in this, if you can get our own members to contribute to this, fine, because in the end that's how it's going to work. Well, this is what this means. This means that I'm going to come to you and ask you as individuals, can you help raise the money to pay for the 1st 6 months of this TV program? And there is pain involved.
I mean, let's face it, we're already giving for our regular collection, so that's already a lot. Then we're already pledging to build this building. We're already, like, strapped to the max, we're stretched. And now the preacher comes up and says, well, after you've done all of that, you think you can wring out another drop of blood and maybe help this other TV thing? Like I said, you know, remember this image here.
I wish this would have happened 2 years from now when the building's finished and a lot of it is paid and so on and so forth, but it it happened. I didn't I have no control over that. So here's what we're gonna do. Next Sunday, we're actually gonna be filming here. There's gonna be a guy with a camera and he's gonna be filming.
He's gonna be filming our worship service, so please don't be offended. That'll be one time. He's going to be filming me preaching, he's going to go into the classrooms, all the classrooms, he's going to be filming he's going to be filming at the picnic, we're going to do a couple of hours of tape. And then I'm going to take that footage and I'm going to reduce that down to about 30 seconds to pick out images, and I'm going to put a music bed under that and that will be our opening sequence, our opening shot. He's going to be here doing that.
In addition to this, we're going to be taking a special collection next Sunday, one time, only do it once. And those who are able, I mean, you know who you are, if you're able to help towards this thing, then do so. Our goal is to raise $23,000 Maybe some other churches are gonna help out, but they're they haven't given me a dime yet. You know why? Because they want to know what we're gonna do.
If we don't believe in it, they're not gonna believe in it either. Please give what you can. Please give what you can. We're at an important point in our history as a congregation, and I believe this particular outreach will be the spark to begin in a whole new era of growth and development. Please remember that what every single individual 4 0 5 people here next week so that when the man is filming, he'll hear tremendous singing and the pews will be full.
And let's be joyful, as we always are. Let's let him get a glimpse of what our family like his life so we can show people on the outside of the building the type of joy and good fellowship that takes place in here. And let's be prepared to the extent that we're able, whether it's a dollar or a1000, to help this effort come to fruit. Well, there may be pain involved with growing, and I want to tell you one thing. None of us will ever know the pain that Jesus Christ endured to secure our forgiveness for our sins and our guarantee of eternal life.
He was willing to suffer the pain of a horrendous death as well as the pain of separation from his father in order to save us. There'd be no opportunity for growth, no opportunity for eternal life, no opportunity for loving fellowship, if he would not be willing to suffer the pain of the cross. And so the little bit of pain that we endure now is nothing compared to the unsearchable riches awaiting those who respond to him in faith and obedience. And the little pleasures that we give to ourselves now here on earth are nothing compared to the suffering that await those who refuse to respond to Jesus Christ and his call. Don't let the pain of Christ be wasted on you and wasted on your life.
This morning, I know I haven't preached the gospel, it was a kind of nuts and bolts sermon, had to bring you up to speed on a lot of things. Those of you who are our guests this morning, please realize that most of the time the lesson comes straight from the scriptures. We just open our bibles and we go from that. This morning is the exception, I believe. But you do have an opportunity now, if you need the prayers of the church or if you need to respond to Jesus Christ in repentance and baptism, if you need to be restored to our lord, perhaps place membership with us and help us in the great things that we're about to do, we call on you to come forward now as we stand and as Harold leads us in a song of invitation.