sharing sundays

One of my favorite Sundays of this past year had to have been the sharing Sunday we did in April. Though to be completely honest, as the one planning that morning—you always wonder how such a service will go. In my experience, Sharing Sundays can go one of two ways: either no one shares and everyone uncomfortably looks at the ground in silence, or it is a beautiful time of sharing honest and real stories of God’s faithfulness and goodness. Thankfully, the latter is what happened, and I, like many others, left that Sunday thinking, “We need to do this more often!”

I believe it is a powerful thing when the people of God gather together to recount and remind one another of the ways He has been good, and remind one another of His faithful promise and everlasting love. That Sunday morning was filled with stories of God’s steadfast faithfulness, seen in countless ways across the lives of the people in our church. And for as much as we need reminding, we also need encouraging, as not every story has a nice neat bow. I think what I particularly appreciated about this Sharing Sunday in April is that some stories were shared from right in the thick of things—from the “not-yet-resolved” and uncertain places. And with those stories, we were able to listen and cry with those individuals, lift them up in prayer, and simply be with them, as they shared, and perhaps in a small way, lift one another’s burdens.

The most beautiful part of it all was perhaps how each of the stories and times of sharing led our hearts into worship of our faithful and present God.

- Mat Nilan