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Pastoral Pondering: Get caught up in the rush of
life and you'll miss the blessing
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Moving with the aid of prayer |
GodSong Community Church moves into its new quarters
on Industrial Parkway |
By Schellene Clendenin, Newberg
Graphic reporter
E-mail Schellene at sclendenin@eaglenewspapers.com
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When Ron Thomason and his
congregation prayed for a larger meeting place for its youth group,
he never expected God would provide quite as good a solution as he
did.
“He gave us a building for our youth, our church and our Service On
Wheels ministry,” said Thomason, pastor of GodSong Community Church.
Thomason will perform church services in the new building for the
first time at 10 a.m. Sunday at 1025 Industrial Parkway.
“We were looking for a place for youth to meet,” he said. “For two
years they’ve been meeting in a home. Forty to 50 kids in a house
can be ... interesting.”
Thomason, who ministers with his wife, Heidi, said they and church
members had been looking at every available building they could find
to rent.
Up to now the church held services at Antonia Crater Elementary
School and at the Chehalem Senior Center.
“We’ve been setting up and taking down for almost three years now,”
he said, adding that meeting in a building of their own will be a
welcome change.
But the congregation has remained faithful, he said. The church
developed several teams of caretakers charged with setting up and
taking down each Sunday.
“We call them Levis,” Thomason said. “They have the commitment and
patience to come together and set up God’s house. That’s critical to
who we are now.”
He said the church was unable to find a building of sufficient size
that it could afford. But at a recent board meeting, a member
mentioned a building in the industrial park near Sportsman Airpark
that was for lease, and possibly for sale.
“We talked to the owner and she has been incredible, so able and
willing to work with us and allow us to move in,” he said. The
church will lease the building for a year. Thomason hopes to
purchase the building.
“We will start to move in this weekend and the first service is
Sunday,” Thomason explained. “We will be busy doing the remodel and
dreaming (until then). It will be neat to have a canvas to look at
and say ‘we can do this’ and not have to move it.
“We’ve built great relationships and we’re ... excited with the
possibility to set up all our ministries in one place and expand
into the community. That’s what’s cool about it.
Now, the church is working to get everything ready for its first
service: cleaning carpets, paining and preparing.
“We might ask people not to lean on the walls,” he said with a
chuckle. “We’re trying to get as much finished and furnished as
possible. We want it to be inviting.” |
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From
June 3, 2006, Newberg Graphic
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