Reflections From Sunday Evening

Had a good day at church today. Pastor Angie reminded us that "faith without works is dead." A great lead up to Faith and Action next weekend. If you have not indicated where you plan to serve please do so this week. Many opportunities to bear with to Christ through serving others. At the 11:00 service we had confirmation. This is always one of my favorite services in the year. We had 12 students confirmed today. 2 were baptized and all made their profession of faith in Jesus Christ. A special thanks goes to Jim and Margie Thomas who met and worked with this group over the past year. We have another group that is currently meeting and will be confirmed later. It was a good day. This is also graduation weekend. Cindy and I had the opportunity to get around to some graduation parties this weekend. Great accomplishment and great joy. Through all we have been doing this weekend I have been thinking about what a blessing it is to be part of our church. I am grateful to be part of the body of Christ. Something I have just begun to think about will be showing up in other ideas and expressiions. My prayer is that we do not settle for modifying behavior in positive ways - as important as that is - but that we be about the ministry of changing lives. The Gospel brings people from darkness to light - from death to life - from despair to joy. The Gospel is more than helping us be more enlightened, tolerant, nicer and culturally adept. Join me in giving this idea some prayerful consideration. More to come. I'd be remiss to not mention the one year anniversary of the Joplin tornado. Our prayers continue as friends and brothers and sisters in Christ continue to re-build in that community. It's been a good day. I hope you've had a good day too. steve