“Karen’s Notes!
Insights from a Glory-Bound Lady”

Selected Notes
Volume 3 Number 21 “When Churches Experience FUN!”

May 20th, 2020

Karen and I always prayed about her speaking engagements. I was genuinely interested in not only where she had been invited but also what she’d be speaking about. She only spoke to ladies’ groups. But I also realize that as I read her notes, there are some good encouragements to not only ladies but to men as well. You can imagine my surprise when she told me the title of her seminar was going to be “Your Church Needs to Have Fun!” She went on to explain that FUN was an acrostic of three wonderful things every church needs. Two weeks ago we saw that F stood for “Faith.” Last week we saw that the U stood for “Unity.” I’m eager to move to the letter N. Let me share some of the verses and then a brief portion of her notes.

“O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph. For the Lord Most High is awesome; He is a great King over all the earth. Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth” (Psalm 47:1-2; 6-7a).

Karen wrote: The F stands for faith. This means to believe in and fully trust the Lord Jesus. The U stands for unity. We are one body with many members. Now thirdly we come to the N. This stands for NOISE!!

“Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands. Sing forth the honor of His name: make His praise glorious” (Psalm 66:1-2). We need to be making the great “noise” of praising the Lord. We need to be praising the Lord with song (Psalm 95:1-2). The people at the Mount of Olives began to rejoice and praise God “With a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen” (Luke 19:37). So should we.

But there is something else. Not only should there be the noise of praise and singing, oh how every church needs the noise of having children. If you have children in your ministry, you are blessed. The Lord Jesus said, “Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14). Isn’t it interesting what Nehemiah 12:43 says? At the day of great celebration Nehemiah declares, “Also that day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced: for God had made them rejoice with great joy: the wives also and the children rejoiced: so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off.” It’s great to have men and women along with children.

Michael’s observation: We are the church. So in a very real sense, we need FUN. We need faith. We need unity. We need the noise of praising the Lord and singing to Him. That’s just what I need today. How about you?