Thank You, Immanuel

The best goodbyes are bittersweet. Saying goodbye to high school classmates after four years of life together. Watching your kid drive away to college. Giving away your daughter on her wedding day. The deep love that makes someone’s absence so bitter is the same love that makes their flourishing so sweet. Immanuel Community Church has loved Harvest Church with such a love. 

Mary Margaret and I moved to New Orleans as clueless newlyweds in the summer of 2016. We jumped into the life of Immanuel Community Church, and they embraced us with open arms. Through countless meals, hymns, Bible studies, prayers, outreach events, sermons, and conversations, God did a work in us that is hard to put into words. They walked alongside us as we became parents. They gave me the great privilege of serving as one of their pastors. Many of them became some of the best friends we have ever had. Now they are sending us out with some of their most faithful to plant Harvest Church. 

As I reflect on our years at Immanuel, Paul’s warm words to the church at Philippi come to mind: “I give thanks to my God for every remembrance of you, always praying with joy for all of you in my every prayer, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now” (Phil. 1:3).

The greetings in Paul’s letters seemed like throwaway verses early in my Christian life, but after being deeply enmeshed in the life of a local church, these words of remembrance and thanksgiving resonate in my heart and lead me to joyful prayer. So Immanuel, Harvest wants to take some time to say thank you for being our sending church. 

Thank you for being our friends when we had none in a 100-mile radius.

Thank you for setting up chairs with us.

Thank you for believing in us when we did not believe in ourselves.

Thank you for moving us (multiple times).

Thank you for nurturing our youthful zeal and guiding us along in wisdom.  

Thank you for crying with us when the seed we had sown had born no fruit and tragedy loomed large.

Thank you for laughing with us (and at us when we took ourselves too seriously).

Thank you for sending us out joyfully in the middle of a pandemic and a building campaign.

Thank you for doing hard things with us.

Thank you for rebuking us gently when we deserved a kick in the pants.

Thank you for forgiving us when we sinned against you.

Thank you for praying for us publicly and privately

Thank you for giving your people and resources to see us succeed.  

Thank you for inviting us to your dinner tables when you were exhausted and we stayed way too late. 

Thank you for discipling us as we watched you faithfully disciple your children.

Thank you for hugging us.

Thank you for welcoming us as Christ has welcomed you. 

Thank you for loving us. 

Thank you for your partnership in the gospel.

Thank you, Immanuel Community Church, for loving us so deeply that the goodbye is bittersweet. The seeds that you sowed into our lives will bear fruit in the lives of many at Harvest. We hope to pass on the love, and we pray for many more bittersweet gospel goodbyes in the years to come.