Sunday, August 12th was the official inaugural service of the Auburn/Tuskegee Christian Church. Approximately 70 disciples from Auburn, Birmingham, and the North River Church of the Atlanta Churches of Christ met in the Auburn University Hotel and Dixion Center to celebrate in this landmark event. What an incredible service. Jake Ostrowski, who is leading the Auburn Tuskegee mission team along with his wife Bethany, brought the main message: Knowing and Seeking God. He boldly proclaimed that knowing and seeking God is not about a feeling, but about a decision to sacrifice, be submissive to God, and love him with all your heart. He also shared his dream for the Auburn Church to be a church that loves and knows God and seeks to continually share this with others. I thank God for my brothers and sisters in Auburn and throughout Alabama. I'm excited to have another church, beginning here with small roots, but having such great potential--with God nothing is impossible. Whenever I think about a new church planting I think of the words of Paul in Romans 15: 20 to 21 "It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ is not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation. Rather as it is written: Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand." It encourages my heart to know that the disciples in Auburn have sacrificed their own ambitions in life so that others would know God in this way. In a particular instance of this, God allowed me to meet an inspiring couple there--Bill and Alicia Hames. The Hames have lived in Auburn for the past 12 years and traveled to the Atlanta North River Church of Christ for Sunday services during this time. Its been really encouraging and inspiring to me to see how God answered their prayers and dreams to have a church in Auburn. Today we see the fruit of their faithfulness to God. Jesus says in Matt. 13:31-32 "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches." To God be the Glory.
WAR EAGLE!