Church at the Heights

Today we worshiped at Church at the Heights, 500 Salem Lane, Gibsonia, PA 15044, 724.935.1329, www.churchattheheights.org, Ralph and Cindy Vogel, Senior Pastors.

Scripture –

Genesis 8:22 NKJV –

“While the earth remains,

Seedtime and harvest,

Cold and heat,

Winter and summer,

And day and night

Shall not cease.”

Luke 6:38 NLT –

“Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back. ”

2 Corinthians 9:10-11 NLT –

For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you.

Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God.

Galatians 6:7-10 NLT –

Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.

Bob’s thoughts:

I couldn’t begin to count how many people welcomed us…not just hello but sat down and introduced themselves and made a point of connecting us with other members passing by. Not often do people take that kind of time to visit and point the way to the sanctuary and restrooms. We were welcomed to coffee and donuts and felt like we were with friends.

I could only find some small crosses on a banner, but was captivated by a faux swirled drape over what looked like indirect light boxes running down either side of the sanctuary. There were many interesting posters and art work in the small portion of the facility we saw.

I was most impressed with the prayer time: people prayed as I believe they should, with the authority and power of Christ Jesus.

The pastor’s message was the last of a series on the core values of Heights Church enumerated by each letter of their name, Heights. Today’s sermon was on sowing and giving. I thought the message developed well with good Scriptural support, and shorter verses that were right to the point. He used a helpful analogy to farming experiences that were an understandable way of adapting to our thinking.

It stood out to me that the congregation was really on board and paying attention. Also, the pastor’s passion was evident. I sometimes complain that when we have less to say we talk louder, but when we are preaching Jesus Christ and not ourselves, we cannot go quietly. Salvation is the greatest thing that has, or will ever happen to us, and we cannot be quiet about Jesus.

Something else I noted today: the praise worship team can have a “look at me” posture or a “look at Christ” manner. I was glad they were the latter today. The smiles and enthusiasm for Jesus shows where their heart is.

Jan’s thoughts:

As we have noted in the past, when a church has more than one service, the members often keep their distance from people they do not recognize because they don’t want to risk offending a member, so they choose to forego welcoming someone who may be a visitor. But almost from the moment we walked into this church, people extended a warm, genuine welcome and took time for conversation and to tell us about the church.

The entry was lovely, set up with a welcoming living-room-type area on one side and tables and chairs on the other. There were plenty of coffee and donuts during this between-the-services fellowship time.

The sanctuary was down a long hallway that had small tables set up on the way, along with charming wall hangings, and still somehow when I saw the sanctuary it took my breath away. The lighting, the color, the decoration, it was all just amazing.

On top of all that, the music was marvelous. This is the one aspect of worship that will bring me to tears, and today “Forever Reign” did that. It was perfect, and immediately following that song the pastor/worship leader asked anyone who needed prayer to raise their hands and other members laid hands on them and prayed for them. It was a powerful time.

Today’s was the final message in the current series, “Anchored” and focused on the spiritual laws of “sowing and giving.” He spoke of the “lost concepts of planting and harvesting” and stated that what is planted WILL come to fruition…we are “always sowing something and always reaping something.”

He declared that we are not giving to God if all we are doing is tithing, that giving to the Kingdom means above the tithe. In other words, the tithe should be the minimum starting point. This is something that is not taught nearly enough, I think. We should give to God first and we cannot out-give God, though He does not always repay us in kind.

He taught that most of what God gives us is meant to go back out to bless others; it is not meant for our consumption.

We must sow seeds for the Kingdom. We cannot evade God’s law of sowing and reaping any more than we can plant one seed and reasonably expect something different to grow. We will only harvest what we plant, so we should make sure what we are planting is what we want to harvest.

Our prayer for this church:

Lord, we pray this church continues to increase their giving in every way as You pour out Your blessings upon them. Amen.