Sometimes, things don’t turn out the way we expect. It surprises us when things turn out better than we could ever ask or imagine. At least this was my experience three years ago (March 7, 2021) when it was officially announced that I would be your pastor! Never in my wildest dreams did I believe I would become the pastor at Snellville. Nor could I have imagined the journey that God would lead this church on in the next two and a half years following that initial announcement.

Though it surprised me to be where we are now, it didn’t catch God off guard. Looking back, I now see that it wasn’t by coincidence that my first sermon focused on how God is relentlessly present on our journey. And every Sunday since that first message, I’ve attempted to preach on God’s amazing grace that provides hope and new life. I’ve often leaned heavily on the Exodus story (Pre-Exodus, Wilderness, and Promised New Life) as the framework to help make sense of what God is doing at our church. We’ve crossed the Red Sea and are now in a transitional wilderness experience on the way to the Promised New Life.

We’re getting our bearing in the wilderness as we slowly learn to shed our old ways. And like high school seniors who leave their parents’ homes to enter the new and exciting world of college, we, too, have left our “institutional parent’s house” (denomination) to begin a journey towards a new and exciting world as Snellville Community Church. Along the way, we will discover a new identity emerging. And like college students learning to balance assignments, studying, and extracurricular activities, we’re beginning to realize that we cannot plan our way through our transition; we must learn a new way by listening and discerning what God wants to do for and through us. 

I’d be less than honest if I said I didn’t have an idea or a picture of who we should be and where we should be headed as a new church. But I’m learning that I need to strive less to realize my picture of the church and more to surrender to God’s future picture for our church. Perhaps you also have a picture of where we should go and what we should become. Maybe it’s a picture that fits your idea of what church should be, or maybe it’s becoming one that our children and grandchildren would love. Or perhaps it’s something entirely different. 

Whatever your image of what our church should become and our direction, I invite you to consider a couple of things: 

• No one could have imagined, two and a half years ago when I arrived, that we would be where we are today.
• If it hadn’t been for God’s grace and power, we wouldn’t be where we are today! 

And I believe that since God has provided a way out of nowhere for us to become a new church, God also wants to do something new in our individual and collective lives. This means that God may have to interrupt our plans with His plans. At least, that’s the lesson I continue to learn from God: the willingness to turn away from striving for the image in my head about what Snellville Community Church can become and surrendering to God’s bigger picture. 

In the weeks and months ahead, if we need help stopping the strive for our way and beginning our surrender to God, we can ask this question: Am I clinging too tightly to the image in my head, my way, and what I think is best, or am I willing to surrender to God’s bigger picture, which offers more than I can ever ask or imagine? 

At the Intersection,

Dr. Quincy D. Brown

Senior Pastor