June 13 – “Chattin’ and munchin’”

We made our way to church yesterday.  We went to the first worship service and heard Josh’s take on where the church had come in terms of their Vision 2022 long range planning statement.  Pretty impressive.  They completed Phase one of a major renovation project.  It was slated to take 3.6 million dollars.  The finished project came in at 3.2 million.  Who comes in $400,000 under budget?  And to top it off, the whole thing has already been paid off.  Now that’s impressive.  Later in the afternoon we went to a churchwide meeting with the architecture firm they have hired to walk them through the next Phases.  I was really impressed with them.  They take the time to get to know the church before they come in with drawings and suggestions.  This church is over 100 years old, so they have some major renovations to deal with if they want to enter the 21^st century (or the 20^th, for that matter).  Everyone seemed excited about the possibilities, though. 

 

After church we went down to the first floor where the Sunday school class we usually go to was generally held.  No one was there.  Fortunately, a lady was at the door directing people to their meeting spot for the day … the teenagers’ room.  They were meeting together to get to know each other … just for fun.  Sounded good to us, so we trekked upstairs (well, we used the elevator) to join them.  The youth pastor was leading the meeting.  Instead of an actual Bible study lesson format, they had the room set up with ten large round tables.  Four youth and four adults were allowed at each table.  After a time of chatting and munching on donuts, he led us in some friendly Bible trivia competition between tables.  Some questions were pretty tough (Name the four rivers in the Garden of Eden).  Some were fairly easy (How old was Jesus when he started his ministry?).  The one that took the cake, though, was the no-brainer that was the last question of the day.  In what city was Jesus born?  Easy Peasy, right?  Bethlehem, right?  Not on this day.  The computer flashed up “Jerusalem” instead.  Wait.  What?  Talk about a rebellion.  Virtually every table threw the red flag and demanded a challenge to that call.  The youth pastor finally looked it up in his Bible and acquiesced.  Pretty fun time. 

 

We finished up the morning attending a meeting about the upcoming Children’s Camp.  Chris and I are going as their guests.  I will be working with Josh on the large group worship teachings (He’s the camp pastor).  I’ll also do the small group memory verse portion of the church Bible study time.  Yep.  I can feel a Visual Verse coming up now …

Philippians 2:5 says, “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.”

 

Father, thank you for the time with believers in another fellowship group.  And thanks for the way they are loving Josh and Christi and their kids.  Amen.