Sunday Reflections
I'm still on vacation. We went back to Low Country Community Church. It was great last week. It was great this week too. This week the senior pastor, Jeff Cranston, preached. It was a great sermon which reminded us that (1) God is able and (2) God is indescribably awesome.
At the end he focused us in on the God is able part and called us to believe it in whatever situation we find ourselves in. It sounds simple, but was delivered powerfully.
Here are a few other things that happened Sunday and Monday.
1. I bought Tony Campolo's new book. Book group anyone?
2. I also bought a book whose concept I love. Kevin Roose, The Unlikely Disciple. It chronicles his time as a non-Christian at Liberty University. Should be an interesting read. It got good reviews from both the secular and Christian press.
3. Disappointed that the "best" Christian magazine in Barnes&Noble is called "Relevant". If you have to tell them you are relevant; you probably aren't. The evidence was in the magazine. Christian subculture lacks in tons of ways and isn't really very Christian. It'll never impact our world in a positive way. I'm not even sure Christians need our own Magazines. What's the purpose?
4. Emails from Bangkok told me a couple of things. Life for one of our refugee families is getting harder and harder. How do you help? They can't work. They are living illegally. They don't have money for even some of the most basic things in life.
5. I also heard that our morning attendance Sunday was pretty low... 70. That's about half our "school year" attendance. But Sunday night was high... 50. That's almost back to pre-protest numbers. How long will it be before evening is bigger than morning? Why is evening growing quickly while morning is struggling to grow? I have my thoughts.
6. Sunday morning around 7am I heard someone say, "I need to decide if I'm going to church or not this morning." Let me give you a tip - if you decide about going to worship the God of the universe who loves you and desires to have a close relationship with you and has established churches in which to develop community and share the news about His love with the world... if you decide whether to participate on a Sunday to Sunday basis - you don't really get it. If you are a Christian, unless you are sick, you ought to be in worship somewhere at least once a week with other Christians in something called a church. Anything less is disobedience.
7. The worst part of the week occurred last night. I was hunting sand-dollars in waist deep water with Jake and his cousins when my wedding band slipped off my finger. :-(. It's lost at the bottom of the ocean. Hopefully I can replace it before we head back to Bangkok. If I can't get it engraved in time, at least I should be able to buy a white gold band, right?
At the end he focused us in on the God is able part and called us to believe it in whatever situation we find ourselves in. It sounds simple, but was delivered powerfully.
Here are a few other things that happened Sunday and Monday.
1. I bought Tony Campolo's new book. Book group anyone?
2. I also bought a book whose concept I love. Kevin Roose, The Unlikely Disciple. It chronicles his time as a non-Christian at Liberty University. Should be an interesting read. It got good reviews from both the secular and Christian press.
3. Disappointed that the "best" Christian magazine in Barnes&Noble is called "Relevant". If you have to tell them you are relevant; you probably aren't. The evidence was in the magazine. Christian subculture lacks in tons of ways and isn't really very Christian. It'll never impact our world in a positive way. I'm not even sure Christians need our own Magazines. What's the purpose?
4. Emails from Bangkok told me a couple of things. Life for one of our refugee families is getting harder and harder. How do you help? They can't work. They are living illegally. They don't have money for even some of the most basic things in life.
5. I also heard that our morning attendance Sunday was pretty low... 70. That's about half our "school year" attendance. But Sunday night was high... 50. That's almost back to pre-protest numbers. How long will it be before evening is bigger than morning? Why is evening growing quickly while morning is struggling to grow? I have my thoughts.
6. Sunday morning around 7am I heard someone say, "I need to decide if I'm going to church or not this morning." Let me give you a tip - if you decide about going to worship the God of the universe who loves you and desires to have a close relationship with you and has established churches in which to develop community and share the news about His love with the world... if you decide whether to participate on a Sunday to Sunday basis - you don't really get it. If you are a Christian, unless you are sick, you ought to be in worship somewhere at least once a week with other Christians in something called a church. Anything less is disobedience.
7. The worst part of the week occurred last night. I was hunting sand-dollars in waist deep water with Jake and his cousins when my wedding band slipped off my finger. :-(. It's lost at the bottom of the ocean. Hopefully I can replace it before we head back to Bangkok. If I can't get it engraved in time, at least I should be able to buy a white gold band, right?
