Let's Build Something Together

  • Tim Kelly
  • Jan 2, 2009
  • Series: Winter Announcements

Then I said to them, "You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace."   -Nehemiah 2:17

"Let's build something together."  Have you heard this slogan before?  If so, then you may know that it's the slogan for Lowe's.  Lowe's- whether they know it or not- borrowed this idea from the story of Nehemiah and the Israelites in The Bible.  "Let's build something together" is actually a summary for what the Israelites accomplished through the leadership of Nehemiah and for the glory of God.  Together they rebuilt the torn and burned down walls surrounding Jerusalem despite set-backs, criticism, and opposition.

Genesis will be walking through the Old Testament book of Nehemiah for the next 3 to 4 months.  We need God's Word - specifically from what He says in the book of Nehemiah - to help us focus as we move forward into 2009 and succeed in "building something together."  Since we are a young church of 10 months, we see that our sustainable life as a church depends first on God and then on all of us rallying together to build Genesis.  Otherwise, we will simply fade out of existence as a church. 

We are building God's church by leading others to a new beginning with God (evangelism), rooted in Christ (discipleship), in order to branch out into all of creation (serving).  My prayer and plan (as we'll unfold it in the next few weeks) is to see us grow from a church of 110 to 170 in the next three months.  Then, when we celebrate Easter on April 12, we can move to two Sunday Worship Services at Genesis. 

Some of the things which will help us accomplish this ambitious project is by launching our tutoring ministry at Genesis, which we are formulating to soon reach out and help the hundreds of kids and their families around our church.  Another way is through a spring festival which Genesis will use in order to get to know our neighbors and share Jesus with them.  But all these great ideas and plans are just that, until more people lock arms with us to help make them a reality.

In order for us to serve and share Jesus with others, we need some encouragement and training that our Growth Groups provide.  In these Growth Groups, we gain the necessary fuel so that we can accomplish what God is leading us to do.  That's why we are constantly inviting people to plug into a Growth Group.

The Bible tells us that Nehemiah and his crew of volunteers were able to rebuild the Jerusalem wall in just less than two months.  Wow!  Imagine accomplishing the great project of rebuilding an entire city wall in just 52 days...  Here's the secret to their success and ours: "This work had been done with the help of our God." (Nehemiah 6:16b)  Coincidentally or not, the time between the writing of this article and our one year anniversary at Genesis on February 22 is 52 days, just like Nehemiah's bold project.  We can accomplish a lot together with God's help and your participation!

God is incredible, marvelous, powerful, our God, our Father, our all.  We want you to lock arms with us and make this dream of building Genesis a reality.  As you, others, and I roll up our sleeves and work at building Genesis we will see lives changed and God honored.  It will only happen as the Lowe's slogan of "Let's build something together" becomes not just a nice sounding phrase, but a resounding truth for each of us.  When we become so convinced of this, we will all jump in and volunteer to help build that which God has called us to do.