Merry Christmas Ransom Church!

This weekend has been...well...hard.  Five years ago this weekend a good friend died in a skiing accident.  Four years ago this same weekend I witnessed someone die for the first (and so far, only) time.  On Friday a small private plane crashed taking off from the airport here and killed all three passengers and the pilot.  One of the men in the plane went to our church.  I didn't know him well but his family, members of my church family, are hurting right now, and my heart aches for them.  Logic tells me that there is nothing cursed about the second weekend of December, but still, every time it comes around, I find myself holding my breath just a little.

Despite all the negativity associated with this weekend, this year another significant chapter in my life begins.  This time it is something good.  Very good.  This weekend was the very last weekend that the Ransom Church will ever meet in a movie theater.  Several months ago we bought a building and next week we meet for the very first time in that building.  God's got such a great sense of humor on the timing of that one, doesn't he?  "Merry Christmas guys!  I got you a building!"  I'm sure I'm going get some fantastic gifts this year, but its sure going to be hard to top that one.

I can't tell you how unbelievably excited I am for this new building, but there is definitely a taste of the bitter mixed with the sweet. Even though it has been called "the fifth most ghetto place in Sioux Falls," God has done some amazing things from that movie theater.  He has changed lives.  He has brought new followers to him, brought runaways back, and given new purpose to those who love him but were beginning to forget what it was all about.  I began my time here in Sioux Falls fascinated by a group of people who dared to call a theater a holy place.  I stayed because, though imperfect, they love like God loves.  I know you can find that in many, many churches, including countless here in Sioux Falls, but it was this body of believers who became family.  So when I say I was a little sad to walk out of that place today for the last time as a church, you'll understand that it is because God was there.

Great thing is, God already parked himself at the corner of 3rd and Main long ago.  He had this place picked out long before we saw it, envisioned ourselves in it, or dreamed it would ever be possible to own.  He has a purpose for us here and I know I am not the only one who is ridiculously excited to see what it is.  Its a little sad to see the old place go, but it doesn't even hold a candle to how happy I am to call the new one home.