I have been at SG Sunday Morning for 6 years now and If it’s possible I love it more than ever because it’s fun, God focused and has a friendly ‘family’ atmosphere.
I have been blessed with great Christian parents so growing up, Church every Sunday was a given.
However, it’s one thing to go to a service every Sunday because of your parents’ revelation of God rather than going because God has revealed himself to you.
I’ve been reading the book of 1 Samuel lately and been pondering over these scriptures about Samuel who was raised in the temple under Eli the priest.
1 Samuel 2:21b “the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord.” but then later on in 1 Samuel 3:7 it says, “Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.” Samuel was raised in God’s presence but yet he did not know recognise God’s voice, because God hadn’t yet revealed himself to Samuel. This is where SG Sunday Morning kicks in, being a ‘churched’ kid, I had grown up in God’s presence I knew of Him but I did not yet know Him.
It is as though the God’s word was a seed inside me and being at SGSM was a way of watering and nourishing that seed by listening to the Word of God, being able to give into the tithe and offerings and praising and worshiping God until that seed finally took root in me and I was able to know God for myself.
The second major impact SM has made in my life is teaching me about serving in the house of God. I first started coming to SM in year 8 for that entire year I struggled to make many friends as I was the shy kid. Often I would spend services hiding in a bathroom cubical because I was just too scared to go and sit with anyone. My connect leader organised for me to learn screens which became my job and gave me an opportunity to take ownership of the service.
When I was 15 I went through the clichéd ‘teenage rebellion’ stage, while I cut out youth, connect group and Sunday night Church – I stayed serving because I was planted in. When I realise how messy things had become in my life I came back to God because I had never completely uprooted myself from Church it was easy to come back to youth and connect group.
In serving, God placed leaders in my life who were able to release me into new things, I loved screens because it was hidden so when I was asked to begin speaking in front of people… with a microphone, every fibre of my being wanted to bolt a different direction! The first offering message I did, all I could think was dear Lord don’t let me throw up in front of all these people – I was so scared. That was when I learnt the importance of speaking scripture over my life, taking authority over a situation and making it align with God’s word. 2 Timothy 1:7 “For God did not give me a spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind” and praise God the nerves subsided more and more as the weeks went by.
The most important thing that serving in SM has taught me is to serve with a humble heart, I do not put confidence into my ability to do a certain task rather by the grace God has given me to be able to serve his people.
My heart for SGSM is that every service is an opportunity to encounter God in a real way. I want SM to go far beyond a service, so that the revelations and encounters experienced by our youth on a Sunday Morning are not contained to a time slot rather it is the beginnings of a life long journey in an intimate relationship with God.
I want to see SGSM grow with both ‘churched’ and ‘non-churched kids’ as we individually take ownership of finding ways to tell our friends about God and bringing them along to Church to keep them connected.
