Hello Terra Nova, 

We thought we’d take this chance on Thanksgiving Day to reflect on what we are most thankful for this year. Use the comment feature to say what you are most thankful for this year. 

Matthew Miller::Community Extension Pastor

I’m thankful that God has given me this season of great comfort and of great challenge.  In delivering me to Terra Nova God has blessed me with powerful community and restful friendships like I have never known, and at the same time seemingly calls me out of that comfortable resting place everyday.  I’m thankful that Gad gave me Frieda to share all this with.

Phil Taylor::Executive Pastor

I would have to say that I am most thankful that God enjoys messing with my plans. I’m a compulsive planner who will randomly begin sentences with things like “Hey Aimee, I was thinking that in 2018 we could . . . “, which typically garners a full on eye rolling. This year, God messed with my plans by giving us our son Simon Wisdom who is almost 4 months old. He is the most even-tempered kid I’ve ever seen. He hardly ever cries, he sleeps great, smiles and laughs constantly and is just generally a great baby. We already can’t help but say, “How did we live without him?” We can’t wait to see what God does through this unexpected child.

Scott Womer::Worship Arts Pastor

As I think about that which I am thankful for this season, the things that affect me in so many ways, the things that literally change my life, that I couldn’t live without, my mind first goes to my Peterson Strobe Stomp II guitar tuner. This has not only changed my life, but yours also if you find yourself at Terra Nova on a regular basis. No more B strings that are flat, no more E Major Seventh chords causing tension in your musical and spiritual soul. These are the things that could change your worship life forever. But then I realize that my answer may sound shallow, or irrelevant to those non-musicians out there that don’t realize the importance of an accurate tuner. So I change my answer. I am truly grateful for the family God has given me. A beautiful wife that loves me for who I am. A marriage that is a wonderful picture of “iron sharpening iron”. And a son that keeps getting cuter everyday, and has the flyest brown leather jacket, that makes his own father jealous.  I am given much more than I deserve, and am so thankful for it all.

Ed Marcelle::Lead Pastor

To pause and give thanks is a necessary act of reflection.  We receive constantly from God’s unlimited supply of blessing and provision.  The scripture I most commonly voice in prayer is that “every good and perfect gift comes from God.”  To articulate those gives a deeper expression.  It turns life to worship, breathe to an instrument of praise, memory to prayer.

As we prepare to feast, I am thankful for provision.  No matter what we have lost in economic shifts, God has provided well for my soul, my family, and my church.  I am grateful to God for this.

In this year I have watched my family grow.  I have beautiful daughters of good heart and actions to match, I am grateful.  I have strong sons who are growing as men.  I watch them aid their family, protect the weak, and grow in many talents.  I am thankful for their lives.  These children are a good and perfect gift.

I am the product of the love of Christ through the church.  From a small country church in upstate, NY to godly Presbyterian plants in booming Texas suburbs, to my church family at Revolution Hall I am thankful.  I have found and get to live close Christian community of contemplative exploration of God, a pilgrimage of following filled with the glory of glimpses of Christ in both strength and humility, and the chance to serve others in community, in a voice that makes sense, in a place that is ours gives the incarnation special and real meaning for me and our church.  I am thankful that He has made us a family, a temple, a body.  I am most thankful for the family he has given me in those closest to me at Terra. 

There has been one person who has shown me the unconditional love of Christ, lived with me all the messy humanness of being complex sinner-saints in the deepest and most genuine community a man could have, and worked with me in the ever changing, humbling, and rewarding task of raising the next generation.  For my wife Diane and her companionship, loyalty and love, I thank the Father.  She has been a gift of mercy, counsel, and two-way ministry.

God has blessed me in more ways than I see.  I glimpse a few, pause, find the dichotomy of bowing and looking up to say, “Thank you, my Father, for you good love for me.”

May you pause to find good and perfect gifts, embrace them, and give thanks to the One who gave them.  Blessing and Happy Thanksgiving. Don’t forget to add your thoughts in the comment section.