This morning the kids and I loaded up into the car and headed south. There are plenty of churches to visit in our little town,.. still,… we only live a few miles from the next town over and we have some friends who attend a church there.
Immediately we felt very welcome, and it’s an added bonus that my friend has children who are the same age as mine (and then some.) My children had a friend to feel comfortable with right off the bat.
Sunday school was good – there’s a class for young parents with young children which my friend’s husband leads. The discussion was good – and there was coffee. 😉 I was happy to learn they’re beginning a new book for the summer and that I came on the first day – I don’t like coming in late on things.
And today’s lesson?? Fellowship. What is it, when does it happen, why is it important. (Umm,…HELLOOO??) I’m just sayin. Or in this case, not sayin cuz it should be obvious without me sayin. So.
The service was good, too, though I’m used to (and prefer) a praise and worship type service, I grew up Southern Baptist so I’m not unfamiliar with it – and it’s good to hear some of the old hymns from my childhood sometimes.
At least the preacher opened the bible, read some scripture (they’re working their way through the book of Acts) and preached a sermon off of the text we read. I’m not a fan of the “I’m preaching on this (possibly perfectly fine) topic and I may or may not read a scripture to support it” approach. (See, I know there are terms for these different kinds of preaching, I just don’t know them.) At any rate, I believe the one I like is called expository, and while the preacher may have admitted he’d digressed from his sermon notes to hang out on one topic he felt important to discuss further, it was still inspired because of the text and it was still in agreement with scripture and that’s what I’m looking for.
The sermon? Ananias and Sapphira. The point? They had one foot in the church and one foot in the world – they were not “All In” for God. And God is not calling us to halfway. He’s calling us to be all in, to serve, to live, to go, to do, to bear fruit, to worship him WHOLE-heartedly.
I don’t think the pastor knew it, but what he was saying was a follow up of what we’d been talking about in Sunday school, about how important it is to be a part of a fellowship of believers, and about how true fellowship stems from true fellowship with God on an individual basis. You can fake one but you can’t fake the other.
And it all gave me hope because these are the things I am looking for. I don’t HAVE to have a certain music style, or a certain order of worship, or a certain way of doing things. Just like now knowing what you have until it’s gone,.. you learn what’s really important in a church when you don’t have it.
I need teaching that comes straight out of God’s word.
I need fellowship with like-minded believers.
I don’t know if this church will become our church home or if we’ll keep looking and end up somewhere else. But I know that I enjoyed visiting today, and that I’d like to go back next week.
It’s a good start.
