Backflash

Every Sunday I'm in awe of the depth of the worship we're having at our church. No, it's not quite "heavenly" yet, but as our congregation learns to be more open to God and our band continues to flat out take us to greater limits, it's an exciting experience every week.

Today the songs went so well with the theme of the sermon - caring for your neighbor - from the story of the Good Samaritan. I felt pretty wiped out after the first gathering because of the emotion this sermon took out of me. I'm pretty passionate about communicating the need for us to become a true missional congregation and transitioning away from seeing church as what we do on Sunday alone.

Being Labor Day weekend it was our last "hurrah" for this summer season. The numbers of out of town guests will drop noticeably next week. But that's OK. It's part of the territory here. But we'll miss them, especially their encouragements.

Tonight we had communion. Andy did a great job relating Passover to the Cross. Then after a new song from Pocket full of Rocks (or something like that) Nathan shared with the church about Tricia's upcoming double lung transplant. You can learn more about that at her site www.65roses4pattysue.com. Then the church (all of us!) gathered around Nate and prayed. Unfortunately Tricia wasn't feeling well so she missed being there.

It's so refreshing to see the church set up the auditorium from a Sunday morning worship setting to a fellowship room with tables and chairs. I love it! And the Mexican food tonight was, as always, muy bueno! Thanks again to the fellowship team for putting it all together.

Tomorrow's a holiday, so I've given the First Appointment guys the morning off as well. I hope they all remember!