Tale Of Two Churches

This turned into a rant about the churches I love. So how about I recommend that you skip it if you get bored with my rants, and move on to the rest of Sunday in the next post when it's up?

First, I almost forgot to update those who care about the court date last Friday. The charges were expanded somehow to at least one more of the kids that broke into my garage, and the main kid was still changing his story every minute (from what I'm told). I was a couple of minutes late, having no respect for the court system after the last experience. The assistant states attorney told me later that they almost dismissed because I wasn't there yet. But almost an hour later, after having done nothing but sitting out in the hallway, the assistant states attorney told me that they were given court supervision as punishment. Not much punishment, but it was their first offense, and the kids mother and teacher were telling him over and over again about the concept of bad choices, so I really wasn't hoping for more. One of the other kids was pretty stupid and immature though, he could have used more.

Saturday - Wasted most of it, but there were a few hours of productivity with Josh's mandatory house cleaning scheduled for the morning. We didn't get to everything that crazy man wanted to get to, but the master bathroom, kitchen, living room and refrigerator were in the worst condition and are now well cleaned.

Sunday was church (duh), but two doses of it this week. I planned on going to Bethany Community Church in Washington because of the lack of responsibilities in Peoria this week, and friends I had going as well. Pastor Ritch continually reveals that all you need to preach about it Christ glorified. 1 Corinthians 12 talks about the purpose and use of spiritual gifts. The benefit of these gifts is for the entire body of Christ, and therefore there was a bit of a theme of unity. But also a simple refocusing of our purpose on that of glorifying God and bringing joy to others. It's easy to figure out what gifts you don't have, but we are strongly obligated not to shy from whole heartily using the gifts that we do have. Again, not something I was really convicted about until the last couple of years. If you have a thoughtful, observant, outgoing, loud and boisterous personality, I don't know what all your gifts are, but if you don't either, there's a good indication that you can use those qualities to encourage and build up other people in a meaningful way. Uuuuuuuuuther people. That's one of the habit roads I've talked about in my life. When I decided to try to start focusing on other people, I found that my attitude and endurance for it fluctuated quite a bit based on how I was letting things go in other areas in life, but I'm glad to have a genuine taste of fruit that will not go away easily.

Well, moving on to Bethany Community after that found more blessings than I expected. First, I guess I wasn't such a genius for using this week as a visit week to our church plant in Washington, because everyone else from Bethany Baptist decided to visit as well. Even without them, it was the exact warm and welcoming experience that the BCC church plant folks had been shooting for. At Candlelight and Carols, the front hallway at Five Points Community Center was perfect for funneling everyone through a gauntlet of happy faces waiting to thank you and wish a Merry Christmas on your way out. Well...it works as you're coming in to the building too! Great job Gary and Chris, the first of several in the gauntlet :-)

A few similarities in the service. We sang the same rarely used song at BBC and BCC that morning. It was mentioned, however, that at BBC it must have been a lower key. Durham knows Fred too well.

Pastor Daniel was also speaking on church unity, but from another aspect, Ephesians 2:14-18. Bonus!!! I highly recommend downloading this sermon (when available), which, like Pastor Ritch's sermons, addresses the history and meaning of scripture, as well as the loving, glorifying and inspirational intent and application.

And just like pastor Ritch, Daniel announced that "you may see three points listed in your bulletin, but we will only have time to get through one of them." Unlike Ritch, he walks around alot with his Bible.

Well, this turned into a rant, so how about I recommend that you skip it if you get bored with my rants, and move on to the rest of Sunday in the next post? Oh, a little late isn't it. Okay, we'll put a warning at the top too.