CHURCH REPORT FOR AUGUST 1, 2021: Daniel continues

 Disclaimer (because someone will say something): although I am actively involved in my church, all opinions and observations are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the leadership, staff, or congregation.

CHURCH REPORT FOR AUGUST 1, 2021

Happy August! It's hot. Smoke is in the air from our annual regional fires. And did I mention it is hot?

What better place to be than an air-conditioned building for the Sunday Morning Worship Service! 

Ordinally, I would refer to the "Weekend Worship Service." For several months, we have had a duplicate service on Saturday evening. The Saturday service was started primarily in an attempt to address concerns about Covid spread. By offering a second service, it would spread out our crowd, thus reducing issues of distancing. The Saturday night service did not have a huge turnout, but there were positive comments from those who came.

But since our church has headed into youth activity season (camps, VBS, and so on), it has become difficult to staff a second service. And with camps winding up, many families are trying to squeeze in one last vacation or getaway. So the elder board decided to discontinue the Saturday night service until September, when they will reevaluate the program.

So that leaves us with Sunday morning. . .

We've been going through the book of Daniel and this week's message from Mike
Bull was from chapter 5. Mike usually does not have a title for his message, but the passage had to do with another famous account: the handwriting on the wall. King Belshazzar, at a drunken revel, sees a finger appear and write a cryptic phrase on the wall. Daniel announced that Belshazzar and the Babylonian's kingdom was at an end. And that night, Babylon fell to the Medes and Belshazzar was killed. 

Mike's style of preaching is to bring in a lot of background and then bring in a lot of application: personal, society, church, nation. One of the asides had to do with the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic has caused such division within the church at large. Vaxxers, anti-vaxxers, maskers, anti-maskers: we need to be more open and tolerant to one another. Personally speaking, I think he's right, but I can't help but feel there were a few on both sides of the debate who who took umbrage at his statements. But good preaching does that. Not that the speaker should seek to make someone mad, but sometimes, it happens. Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt.

Quick shout out to our music director Chris Alden. Week after week, the music is consistently good. Sometimes, his challenge is to find enough musicians and singers to bring it over the weekend (particularly Saturdays!). But bring it they do...and I would put our praise team against the "big boys" any day.

Being as it was the first Sunday of the month, we also observed the Lord's Supper, remembering the death of Christ on the cross to pay the price for our sins. Folks came forward to take the elements during the second worship set. Doing it in remembrance of Him!

So how was your church service this weekend?