DISCOVER

Have you met Gay Tucciarone yet?  Gay is our new Director of Preschool.  In my message last Sunday, I talked about Gay’s husband Lenny and the way God brings together Lenny’s passion and abilities with people’s needs.  I think I then said, “Lenny’s wife is Gay.”  This confused a few.  (Sorry about that!)

Gay is passionate about preschoolers.  She won’t like it if you assume she is just “babysitting” our little ones on Sunday morning.  Have you ever seen a passionate preschool leader go postal during church?  When talking about preschoolers, Gay will light up with enthusiasm about how much they can learn and grow in all things Gospel.

Since Gay’s addition to our staff, I’ve seen an uptick in our preschool volunteers’ energy.  Gay knows how to encourage, love, and take care of her team!  Gay has a room full of snacks, food, and fun stuff just to build up the adults who serve in our preschool ministry.  I’ve watched Gay unfold the new strategy of having a large-group teaching time with our preschoolers.  It’s a sight to behold.  I’ve watched Gay engage high levels of creativity to raise the bar in this vital area of ministry.  I’ve seen many parents smile.

What spiritual gifts do you see being employed when you hear about Gay Tucciarone?  I think I could rattle off a few.  Teaching.  Encouragement.  What about leadership?  Most definitely.

Gay has allowed the Holy Spirit living inside her to use her abilities and passion to intersect with a huge need in our church.  The result:  A growing, viable, exciting preschool ministry that will change our church and the Kingdom of God, beginning with little folks in diapers who can barely walk.  The faith of kids and adults is strengthened through Gay’s spiritual gifts.

Gay is a part of the body of Christ at Cumberland.  And when the body is fully functioning, the church works really well.  When body parts are engaged in passionate ways, the beauty of the Bride of Christ shines in stunning ways.

But it requires all body parts to function.

Have you discovered your part in it all?  Without you, we can’t grow and mature.  Without you, the body doesn’t function.  Think about how tough your life can be when the smallest of your body parts rebels or shuts down.  

This Sunday, we gather for part two of our “Gifted” series.  We’ll focus on I Corinthians 12:12-26 and discovering our place.  

Last week as we identified what spiritual gifts are and how they work, so many of us stretched a rubber band across the outline of a body.  A rubber band that is stretched becomes dynamic and full of energy.  The tension of being used brings about a life of no regrets.  If you placed a rubber band on the body, you indicated you were “all in.”  Are you?  Do you know your place?

Let’s get together this weekend at 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. to discover.  Bill Hybels of Chicago’s Willow Creek Church once said, “There’s nothing like the church when the church is working right.”  CCC can only work right when you are working right as a part of the body.  AND… as we work together as a united body, our credible witness of the Gospel to a jacked-up world becomes even stronger.

Let’s do this, Cumberland.  I’m excited to teach.  See you Sunday morning!

Blessings,

Alan

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