Under the terms of the Law, God appointed Feast days in which His people were to gather together at an appointed time to celebrate His goodness towards them. The major festivals of Old Testament Israel were: Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Booths.

    

The importance of the festivals were to be both communal and commemorative. They were communal in that they drew the nation together for celebration and worship as they recounted the common experience of the people. They were commemorative in that they kept alive the story of what God had done in the exodus and during the sojourn. From God’s perspective it was important that His people gathered together to celebrate His goodness to them.

 

We no longer live under the terms of the Old Covenant; however, as people of a New Covenant established by Jesus Christ, we have even more reason to be a celebratory people. Through Christ we have received forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life. Because of our new life in Him, we now have a plan and purpose to live out in our day and generation. As believers in Jesus Christ who have been placed into His body, we should be in the habit of celebrating together. We need to intentionally find opportunities to gather together to celebrate His goodness towards us.

 

At PHBC, we have over sixty years of God’s activity amongst us that should be celebrated. Through His grace and mercy, literally thousands of people have come to know Him as Lord and Savior through the ministry of our church. We are unique in that we have three distinct services that meet on a weekly basis, but that doesn’t change the fact that we are ONE body of Christ. We may do things a bit differently in each service, but make no mistake about it, this is ONE church and it belongs to Jesus Christ. We have much to be thankful for and need to be in the habit of celebrating together what God has done for us in the past and is doing for us in present.

 

One of the things that I am really excited about as the new Pastor of PHBC is to move us forward in celebrating together. We are going to begin having Celebration services at least two times a year in which we gather together as ONE church to fellowship and worship the Lord together. These celebration services will be regular reminders that “We Do It Better When We Do It Together.”

 

On Sunday, September 1 at 10:30am, we will be having a Celebration service outside at our Pavilion as we gather together to celebrate God’s goodness to us. We will be worshiping together as ONE church and then will have the opportunity to eat together and enjoy one another after the service. While there will be plenty of details you will be hearing about in the coming weeks to help us prepare for this event, the number one thing I am asking you to do right now is to mark your calendar and plan on being with us for this special event.

 

We do it better when we do it together, and as a church family, we want to celebrate in unity the Lord’s good favor upon His people.

 

Pastor Shane Prewitt