End of the Line

Today I went to two different church services, at different churches. As part of a committee I am on, were assigned to attend another church and make comparisons between our church and the other church. I attended a local church that has been growing and expanding it ministry to see what they did. It became evident to me that I do not have good luck visiting a church when the regular pastor is preaching. When I was in high school several of the guys in the youth group decided to attend the other Methodist Church in town. This was partly due to our disagreement with the pastor at our church. This was a theological difference of course, and we decided to do something about it. The Methodist Church that we visited was having their United Methodist Women’s Sunday. This resulted in our listing to the president of the UMW at this church give a sermon. While I was attending college in Abilene my friends decided to listen to the aforementioned pastor that I had the disagreement with. (He had moved to a Methodist Church in Abilene.) It so happened, that he was gone and we listened to a substitute pastor. The person preaching was not in the ministry, nor was he interested in entering the ministry. He was a high ranking city official who spoke about parks, road, and the water system. I saw several people that I knew at the church I visited, they were all friendly, and no one else seemed to be overly friendly. My conclusion to this is… …I really do not have one at the moment. It was strange though, it has always been drilled into my head that the congregation should be friendly. That will make people come to the church. More than likely, I believe that people look at the programs more then they do how friendly the congregation is. (Not to say that an extremely unfriendly congregation will attract people.)

Today, Strebeck preached the sermon and it was excellent. The sermon title made sense after he explained it. I think that wherever they go, they will be a catalyst for spiritual growth.

I heard this great song on the radio while listening to the “Acoustic Café” (89.9). It is titled End of the Line, by Richard Julian. It was so good that I got on the internet and purchased it.