What is godliness? How can imperfect people possess a quality that causes their lives to image the Divine? That's what we talked about this morning. This series is going step by step through 2 Peter 1:5-7. And I say "step by step" because that's how these characteristics are presented by Peter: one "step" leads to the next in this quest for spiritual maturity.
Today on the Outer Banks we were expecting Tropical Storm Cristobal. But he still hasn't shown up. Contagious Youth, that usually meets on the beach was moved indoors because of the forecast. With Andy out of town Rich taught the youth and I met with the Parent Pod. You can find out more about that stuff on Andy's blog.
One of the fun parts of being in a resort area church is that you get to see both a lot of new people each week who are on vacation and come to church as well as those who make NHC part of their annual pilgrimage. And today the energy that seemed to be down some last Sunday was back.
It's also fun watching folks trying to wolf down a donut and cup of coffee before they come into the gathering. So I will walk around and let them know it's OK to bring them into the service. The looks of surprise I get!
Today was Burnie's birthday. Believe it or not 3 of our band members are in their mid-50's, which I think is way cool. Most of the rest of them are in their 20's. And today they sounded awesome. It was also Gail's first venture back on the keys since her hand surgery in May. She said she hit a few bad notes, but I didn't notice.
Two comments from a first time guest, a local young lady who grew up in a very different church tradition than ours. She's been visiting churches around, so I asked her what she thought. "You taught the Bible in a way I could understand it and it made sense. And I loved the music!" She seemed very pleasantly surprised.
Posts
6 comments:
Today was a most excellent day at NHC!
Missed y'all!
I hope it's also okay for people to step out of the service for a few moments when the coffee wends its inevitable way through the system.... do you and the music group carefully not have any?
Glad it all went well; so did ours (But when, oh when, did ministers start being very much younger than us???). We thought about the Prodigal Son - and my "What if" for this week is what if he'd not wasted all his money, but invested it and become a successful businessman, and went home on a take-over mission?
But next week I shall be preaching on the Kingdom, so pray for me.
I worked as the office manager at a church for 2 years. I can't say that I had much respect for the pastor by the time I was done with my tenure. We would have NEVER allowed people to come into the sancuary with DONUTS and COFFEE!!!! SOMEONE MIGHT SPILL!!! ACK!!!! The perfection would be marred!!!
Lizzy,
When we built the building we intentionally went with a stained concrete floor in our multipurpose area (we don't use the word "sanctuary" for theological reasons) for practical purposes.
People spill coffee/hot chocolate every week, I'm sure. So what? We just do the "Brawny" thing and clean it up. No big deal.
The coffee helps create a mindset, especially to the unchurched that "I can be comfortable here".
I have to admit, though, I have a hard time clapping with the songs with a cup of hot coffee in my hand!
Dude! You let ppl bring their coffee and donuts inside?!?! I'm totally moving to the OBX now! ;-)
Post a Comment