Last January I made a phone call.
It was a Thursday morning. I had just dropped my oldest daughter off at school and ran a quick errand with my youngest. After loading her and our groceries into the car, I sat in the parking lot and cried. I was facing another weekend without them, which meant I was facing another three days of sitting in the frustrating place I had been in for months:
a place where I felt closer to who I am yet further away from myself than I ever had been.
I felt empty, in a sense, but had this unidentifiable longing—an urgency of sorts—to be doing something.
As I drove away I began to pray, asking God to show me whatever it was that I sensed but could not identify. Almost immediately He reminded me of the phone number I stored in my phone months prior.
I had no idea how much a five minute phone call would change my life.
For years I heard people say that the people they went to church with were family. They spoke of warm meals being delivered after babies were born, supporting each other through unfortunate circumstances, and growing alongside one another.
The family at Woodside Pontiac is no different than such a church family…yet it is. It is the family of Acts 2:42-47. It is a family that embraces everyone for who they are, what they are, and where they are. It is a praying family, a loving family, a caring family. It is a church family unlike anything I have ever known because Woodside Pontiac is a church unlike anything I have ever known.
I have never known a church that embodies unconditional love and acceptance as this, that simultaneously celebrates who each person is while pointing them to the love of Christ as their sustainment.
I have never known a church that fellowships as this, that does not simply serve meals after every service but that does so in a familial, personal manner that illustrates biblical servanthood.
I have never known a church that does life with the members of its body like this, that takes an active interest and role in the struggles and triumphs of each person beyond prayer. I have never known a church body who, with an atmosphere so thick with the Holy Spirit, collectively continues in praise and worship to rejoice in the gift that that is even after service has technically ended.
I have never known a church that provides Thanksgiving dinner for its members and their family and friends simply to show them they are loved.
I have never known a church that not only invites its members to an annual event at its sister campus, but that also drives them there, serves them dinner, and engages in rich fellowship afterward.
When I first learned of Woodside Pontiac and all that it does for its members, I wondered why. Unlike any church I have ever attended, initially I did not understand why they serve and pour out love the way they do. After attending service for a few weeks and serving alongside them, it became clear:
It is because of God.
It is because God is the One who birthed this church that it is this way. It is because God is the One who appointed specific people to leadership at this church that it is this way. It is because God is the One that gave that leadership such commitment to and thirst for the Word that it is this way.
It is because this church seeks God and His will above all else that it is this way.
I am unable to properly express the emotions I experience when I think about how this church--my church--has changed my life and the lives of my daughters. What started as a phone call about volunteering has yielded substantial and unexpected blessing. It seems insufficient to use any word that I know or could find upon searching to describe what I feel in my heart,
which is precisely the same thing that happens when I try to speak of the love of God.
Our Abba Father wants every single one of us to feel His indescribable love the way that I do. He wants us to experience the blessings that just basking in it brings, even (and especially) when we least expect it. When I inquired about serving, I never intended to find a new church home, a church family, and immeasurable new growth. But I did, because of God’s love.
His love is alive and well at Woodside Pontiac. Come experience it. It just may change your life, too.
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Acts 2:42-47