When we first walked into The Rock of Southwest in July of 2011, I had no idea how important it would become in my life. Back then, the Cafe/Youth addition was just being finished, there were three Sunday morning services (who in the world came to church at 8:00 am?!), and we joined a Growth Group that met in an upstairs classroom during the last service. The Cafe and the Young Marrieds ministries didn't exist yet, high school group still met on Wednesday nights (instead of Tuesdays), and Bruce had a spunky intern who was also our Growth Group leader. I can hardly believe this was just five years ago! So much has changed. So much ministry has happened. So many lives have been turned more towards Christ, including mine.
Honestly, I'll always be a broken person living in the shadow of God's great grace. But because of the Rock, I'm a little less broken than I was before.
When I think about the past five and a half years in our old building, my mind is flooded with memories. Greetings at the door. Hugs and laughter in the foyer. Fighting the crowds at the children's ministry desks to grab a quick hello from some of my favorite kids. Walking down to the youth room to help lead college group. Many, many Growth Group lessons and Bible studies in the upstairs classrooms. Weddings, showers, meetings, funerals. Hours of conversations in the green room in between worship sets. Journals of prayers penned during practice. Standing on stage with the best view - a congregation worshipping the risen Christ with passion and freedom.
I know that the building isn't what makes the church. At the end of the day, it's just walls and floors and chairs. But man, that building was good to me.
Since we've come to the Rock, I've learned SO much. I've heard over 300 sermons from multiple pastors who have challenged my faith and built my character. I've learned how to worship in a new way. How to respect the deep sacrifice of the staff. How to appreciate the traditional church background I came from but embrace the environment of the Rock at the same time. How to have grace in difficult situations. How to live and love more like Jesus did.
God is so much bigger than my story, yet he's writing every letter of every word in every line. This is truly miraculous to me.
Mark and I have had so many leadership opportunities we didn't deserve. We experienced what it was like to say yes to God, even when we wanted to say no. We've heard no from God, too, even when we wanted to hear yes. We learned how to accept when a ministry is failing. We've watched godly leadership take on seemingly impossible things. We've seen so many people come to Christ. When we arrived, we'd just been married for two years. Now, we've been married for over seven. Truly, we became adults in that building on Alamo Place.
We also had fun - SO. MUCH. FUN. All-nighters, green room conversations, games, meals, retreats, and much more. In all the learning and growing and laughter and tears, we didn't just find friends. We've truly found family.
I'm simply not who I was when we first walked into the Rock. And I'm so grateful for that.
Today, after the last service, I walked through the building to say goodbye. Thankful doesn't seem like nearly a strong enough word to describe how I felt, but it's the most accurate. I'm thankful for a staff completely full of Christ-centered individuals who have sacrificed so much for me. I'm thankful for our friends who love us like family. I'm thankful for the overwhelming amount of wonderful memories. And I'm mostly thankful to Jesus Christ for being so immensely, indescribably good.
I've been a Christian since March of 2000 - almost seventeen years. Isn't it funny that we can work on something for such a long time but still have so much room to grow? We're so far along in the journey, yet so far from the final destination. Sanctification is a surreal process, sometimes. I'm excited for the journey to continue, for all that's waiting for us at the new location.
But I can already tell that when I look back on life, these years will be some of the best because of all the time we spent at Alamo Place.
So goodbye to the old. As we welcome the new, we won't forget all that God has done.
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"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen" (Ephesians 3:20).
"To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy - to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen" (Jude 24-25).
***
The last praise lyrics we sang this morning:
"You called out into darkness
You reached out to save us
You conquered the grave
You crossed the divide
Lost in our sin, you made us alive
How can we ever hold it inside?
We can't hold back
We're gonna lift you higher, higher
Hearts burning bright like a fire, fire
Voices unite - Make it louder, louder
We're never gonna stop singing!
Set free, no longer bound in chains
You rescued me, you called me by name...
Every tribe, every tongue
Every heart will sing
Every knee, we will bow
To the risen King
Lift him up, lift him up
We're never gonna stop singing!"
-Never Gonna Stop Singing, Jesus Culture
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