Transcending Moments

Last weekend we as a church hosted Nancy Beach from Willow Creek Community Church Chicago USA. Nancy spoke at our weekend services. Yet that one sentence does not in any way do justice to the impact of Nancy Beach upon the church here in Ipswich.

I have often thought that as a speaker we actually are the message to some extent. One cannot speak with any degree of integrity on something that is not consistent with who we are. Nancy Beach spoke to us from the heart. Her grace and humility shone through in what she said and how she said it. I was able to spend time with her over the weekend – Nancy Beach is indeed the real deal – ‘fair dinkum’ as we Aussies would say.

Genuinely interested in you – she took the time to listen and respond with thoughtfulness and wisdom.

For me there were many highlights over the weekend but perhaps a memorable moment was when Nancy addressed the Pastors and Leaders of the local Australian Christian Churches district of which I am part and in fact lead.

She spoke on weekend church services and towards the end encouraged us as pastors and leaders to create transcending moments. Nancy then showed us on DVD one of the moments that she had experienced when she spoke in Chicago.

The theme was forgiveness – there was a beautiful song during which there was a very moving scene from the service being shown on DVD for us to see. Nancy told us how this moment had been part of a series of events which saw a family in the church restored, how a couple’s life was brought back together.

There was silence – no one moved – tears flowed – God smiled as a faithful servant being lead by the Holy Spirit allowed God to work through her. It was at that moment that I realized what had happened. This was a transcending moment – Nancy had practically demonstrated what a transcending moment actually looks like – a moment where all of us in that room were brought to a point of thinking about how a weekend service has the potential through these moments to transform lives.

It was in this moment that I thought about something else. How many times because of the busyness of life, the pace I do life at and the constant demands upon me do I miss those wonderful moments? Times when I stop, listen, respond and act. As a result I am transformed in some area of my life or someone else is changed.

Nancy Beach taught me a life lesson that morning – I hope that I don’t forget it!