GRAND RE-OPENING

The first sermon in this series will be RE-OPENING DAY Sunday August 22.

GRAND RE-OPENING is an advertising expression that companies use when they are opening again after being closed temporarily for re-modeling, re-stocking and/or even re-location.

None of these definitions of re-opening fit our situation exactly. Central has not been closed down or shut down but we have been slowed down by both the gloom as well as the doom of COVID.  But we are going to turn the page and move forward boldly and we’re going to mark that spot in time on RE-OPENING DAY Sunday August 22, 2021.

Joshua, leading the Israelites across the Jordan River into the promised land, had such a day. It might aptly be called 12 Stones Day:

^{Joshua 4:8} So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the Lord had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. 

The Israelites built a monument from the 12 stones the purpose of which was

In the future, when your children ask you, `What do these stones mean?' tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever."  (Joshua 4)

RE-OPENING DAY Sunday August 22, 2021 will be CENTRAL’S 12 Stones Day. More than a grand re-opening, we’re going to use that day for marking a spot in time when we, like the Israelites, crossed over from the doom and gloom of COVID to the promised land.

The details of this day are still developing but, for sure, it will include great music, delicious food and the re-opening of some of our ministries that have been suspended during the COVID pandemic.

RE-OPENING DAY will include a remembrance of those loved-ones we’ve lost to COVID. But even more, on this day, we will be laying stones of testimony of how God has lead us through this pandemic of doom and gloom in order to crossover to the shores of our promised land.

It’s gonna be a GREAT day – bring a friend.