Another Visit Down...MANY More To Go!

Last Sunday I visited another church.

I gotta tell ya...I am REALLY loving this "Season of Visitation" that I am in.

Although I got the urge to visit YEARS ago...it wasn't until this January that I FINALLY decided to be obedient to what this is that God wants me to do and just DO IT already.

My visits have been absolute BLESSINGS and my worship just feels so FRESH now. I believe that God is pleased.

As I have written before, I have a bowl full of churches that I will be visiting. On my designated Sundays for visiting, I reach into the bowl on the Friday before and whatever I pull is where I go that following Sunday.

This time around I let my daughter Lauren pick. Wouldn't you know it...she picked a church that I've already been to before. You may be wondering, "If you've already been before then why is that church in the bowl?" I'm glad you asked.

You see...I've attended 6:00 EVENING service there before, but had never attended MORNING service. Now that I have attended BOTH, I can say that the experiences are similar, yet different. One HUGE difference is that evening service is only an hour long. Morning service (I now know) is MUCH longer.

I went last Sunday to their 9:00 am Easter Sunday service and had a great time in the Lord. Because it was Easter (which I prefer to call Resurrection Sunday), they did a theatrical production which showed the love of Jesus to ALL...no matter WHAT one's past or present situation is. At one point I found myself in tears because the performance was so moving.

As the performance went on I began to get just a wee bit concerned as I wondered if the theatrical production was going to be the WHOLE service. I hoped not, but wasn't sure.

Well...my curiosity was quickly quelled when I saw Bishop come out and take to the podium. Soon thereafter he directed us to the passage of Scripture that he would be coming from and I realized that YES, there WOULD be a sermonic message given on that day. The service was great and I looked forward to returning on today.

Although the preaching and teaching are great, one thing that I noticed in all the times that I had visited during evening service, and again LAST Sunday, was that visitors were not acknowledged. I guess I noticed that because at MY church, we go to great lengths to make sure that visitors are GREETED and made to feel WELCOMED.

As I returned this morning to 11:00am service, we sang, praised, worshipped, and again I wondered, "What about the visitors?"

Well TODAY, visitors WERE acknowledged and it turns out that the church even has a special song that the choir sings directed SPECIFICALLY toward the visitors. That warmed my heart.

After all was said and done, it was time for the Word. That's where things got a bit interesting. Apparently, everyone was expecting Bishop to preach except...Bishop didn't make it to service today. From what I understood, he's not feeling well and/or has back pain of some sort. Let's lift him up in prayer.

I was curious to see what would happen next.

Well...God ALWAYS has a "ram in the bush" and one of the other ministers had a sermon prepared and ready to go. Praise God!

One thing I found interesting was when he said, "Well...I know that y'all came to hear Bishop, but you're gonna get ME today instead."

You see...THAT is where spiritual maturity comes in. The "mature" saints go to service to simply hear the Word, no matter WHO'S delivering it. Yet some folks will LEAVE service as soon as they hear that the person they EXPECTED to preach, isn't preaching. THOSE folks need a bit more GROWTH. Thankfully, pretty much EVERYONE stayed. That was great to see.

It used to happen all the time at my church. Folks would come to church, see that Pastor's car wasn't parked out front, and they would drive themselves RIGHT BACK HOME. That doesn't happen anymore, but boy I sure remember the days when it did.

Anyhoo...back to TODAY'S visit.

All in all I can say that I have enjoyed my visit to City of Refuge. I've got LOTS more churches to visit but I am glad that I stopped by that one.

Oh...and at the end of service (I don't know if this happens EVERY Sunday, or if it's a sporadic thing), the church was giving away FREE pies. Apple, Pecan, Pumpkin. YUM! I knew that I didn't need one, but I stood in line for a Pumpkin ('cause y'all know I LOVE me some PUMPKIN pie). The gentleman handing them out gave me TWO and that just seemed gluttonous (even though he was giving EVERYONE two), so I found someone in line to give my extra one to. I thought that was very nice of the church though. And you didn't have to be "low income" or anything to get a pie...you just had to go out there and get one.

One other thing I enjoyed was the sign language interpreter. Gosh, I wish my church had them! Today, I learned how to say HALLELUJAH in ASL. That makes THREE words that I now know as a result of my church visits.

Ok...that's it for now. You never know...one Sunday I just may show up at YOUR church. I'm looking forward to it.

Now Let the DIALOGUE begin: How far, by car would YOU travel to visit a church?

Talk to me!

Til next time...