A New Name… A New Season

“Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.”  (Isaiah 42:9)

Throughout the Bible, time and time again we see God do new and wonderful things in the lives of His people. Many times these new seasons of experiencing God’s power and grace would begin with God giving His people a new name. In the Old Testament, Abram’s name was changed to Abraham, Sarai’s was changed to Sarah, and Jacob’s to Israel. In the New Testament, the Lord changed Simon’s name to Peter and Saul’s name to Paul. After receiving their new name, each of these individuals entered into new seasons of increased fruitfulness, favor and blessing. They saw God’s promises fulfilled and they began to be used by God more than ever before to do His will and to impact their generation!

Exactly one year ago, after taking time to seek God and to pray concerning His will for Chicagoland Family Church, the Lord began to stir my heart concerning His vision and plan for us as a local church.   During those times of prayer, Melissa and I were challenged to think bigger than what we ever had before and to see far beyond where we had been.   We came away from that time changed and we began to see changes that we needed to make as a ministry.  One of those changes was a complete “re-launch” of the church within one year, changing our name and logo, for the purpose of touching more lives than ever before with the life changing message of Jesus Christ.

These changes that I just mentioned are becoming a reality.  On March 20th, 2011, the first day of spring, we began a new season as a local church with a new name…  “Oswego Family Church”.   We believe that this change is very purposeful and that it marks the beginning of a new season of increased fruitfulness, favor, and blessing as we advance the Kingdom of God and the Message of our Lord Jesus.

The name Oswego is actually a Mohawk Indian word which means a “place of outpouring” and it was used to describe the mouth of a river.  The name is certainly fitting for our village located along the Fox River.  In a spiritual sense, we believe that Oswego Family Church will be a place of “spiritual outpouring” where individuals and families will come to be encouraged, refreshed and strengthened by the power of God!