NLICIM Church Anniversary
(March, 2008,Grandview, MO, writer, Brother Eric Butler)
Twenty-Three Years ago a group of core members began meeting on Friday evenings at the home of Keith Wesley Sr. They would continue to seek God’s guidance and direction persistently for the next two years. On March 22, 1987 God spoke that it was time to launch out and begin a new church. Acting in obedience Keith Wesley Sr. along with a core group of believers, gave the first tithe and opened up an account in the name of New Life in Christ Christian Fellowship. Twenty-One Years ago God moved, the faithful obeyed, and through this many lives have been touched and changed. It is an absolute honor to have attended the Twenty-First Pastoral Anniversary and I would like to begin by recalling how the faithfulness and obedience of our Bishop and Pastor brought about a change in my life.
Before I came to New Life I was treading the path of the modern day Pharisee; that Theologian Christian that is more interested in filling his head with knowledge, than filling his heart with God. I remembered witnessing to a Muslim and he asked me who Jesus was. Being full of myself I puffed my chest up and said with confidence, “He is the Manifestation of the Essential Deity Metamorphosed in Anthropomorphic form; He is the Prophesied Incarnation of the Omniscient Omnipresent Omnipotent and Eternal God.” Feeling proud of my meaningless declaration I proceeded to ask if he were ready to turn from his heretical teachings and practices and get saved. Of course he was not; in fact he gave me the blankest expression I think was available to him. He left that conversation without understanding that the true reason he needed to be saved was because “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) Thanks to the teaching and instruction I received in New Members class here at New Life I was afforded the opportunity to learn the meaning of God’s grace. I was blessed with Revelation and learned that the more you know, the more you realize that you don’t know. And that’s to say that the more I got to know God the more I realized that I hadn’t really known God the way I thought I did. Thanks to the instruction of this man and woman of God, I have been able to get to know God intimately and have been blessed by it.
The first two nights of the anniversary celebration included sermons by Pastor Derrick Flanagan of Christ Abundant Life International Ministries in Douglasville, Georgia. On Friday and Sunday we were treated to a word from our very own Apostolic Father, Apostle Skip Horton of Day Star Tabernacle International also in Douglasville, Georgia. Apostle Horton preached a two part series called “Teaching the Word” where he talked about the importance of Revelation.
Through the obedience and faithfulness of our great Man and Woman of God, all of New Life’s Members have been blessed and are being blessed. We can never truly express our gratitude and appreciation for what they have imparted into our lives. Saturday of the Church Anniversary included our attempts to thank them for all that they have done for us.
Though the Anniversary comes but once a year, we are thankful for them year round and should continue to show this thankfulness by keeping them in our prayers.