Reflections From Sunday Evening

Well we got most of our church services in this weekend. We actually doubled our usual attendance on Saturday evening. People wanting to be in worship and getting ahead of the anticipated storm. We did cancel 8:15 this morning and sure enough, 5 or 6 people showed up at that time. It is a real struggle when decisions about cancelling church come along. A few years ago it seemed I had to decide on whether or not to have church, Wednesday programming or other scheduled activities more times than usual. I missed every time! But that is another story. The struggle stems from the high value given to worship. We do many things to honor and serve God and others in the life of the church. Worship is central to our life together. We witness for Christ but evangelism without worship only adds numbers. We serve our community and other people but without worship we merely slip into good works. We engage in mission work but without worship we miss the focus of our mission. We seek justice but apart from worship we only effect societal changes. We practice generosity but apart from worship we get reduced to fund raising. Worship. We worship in community. We are not alone. We experience the presence of God. We are filled with the love of God. We express our love and devotion to God. We find encouragement in the life of following Jesus through worship. There are many other things to talk about here. But the point is that worship is central to our life in Christ. We will continue to encourage people to worship. We will continue to seek ways to offer worship in non-traditional ways. (some are not physically able to be with us so we need to take worship to them.) We will continue to seek God and offer worship that is meaningful, relevant and compelling. Worship. I look forward to our next time together as we seek God's grace together. It's been a good day. I trust you have had a good day too. steve