August 2012 - Blank Slate

Hey, have you noticed something?  Did you see what happened in our building?  You may have missed it.  I know, now you’re going to go looking around to try to see what has been added.  Let me help you a little, it’s not what’s been added but what’s been removed.

A blank slate has been created.  Some signage remains to help with the function and flow of the building, but all of the pictures and banners have been removed from the entrance to the hallway to the Common Room to the foyer to the stage.  Now, this is not the pondering about nothing.  Rather, it’s the pondering that’s really about something.

It can be difficult to write a message on a mage that is already full of words.  It is impossible to paint a scenic picture on a canvas that is already filled with a portrait.  It is hard to speak while someone else is already filling the air with their voice.  You cannot give something to someone who already has full hands.  The building is being prepared to say something new.

You should understand, however, that while we will be saying something “new” it doesn’t mean that it’s completely new.  You may paint different things on a canvas, but the frame and the canvas must remain for each painting.  The building itself says many things about the “canvas” that is being painted on.  We are still situated in the same place.  We are still reaching out to the same region of Edmonton.  We are still serving God to the best of our abilities--following after His purpose and call on us as a church.

Shifts happen.  We are not the same church that was birthed over 50 years ago.  We are not singing songs from over 100 years ago and I am not preaching to you in Ukrainian.  While we currently call ourselves Freedom Centre Church, we were previously Clareview Pentecostal Assembly and began as Beverly Pentecostal Tabernacle--a Ukrainian Church in the Slavic Branch in the PAOC.

Back to our blank slate.  There are some new things to be said, but we are not quite ready to say them.  I would encourage you to make yourself ready to hear them next month.  God has already been painting these things on the canvas of our lives.  Having some good anticipation to hear these things can prepare the soil of our souls to receive them from Him.

Journeying with you,

Pastor Merril