There is something intriguing about a going to church on a Saturday evening. First of all, it is the actual Sabbath and while it's not that big of a deal in light of grace, it is at least intriguing to worship on the day my spiritual ancestors worshiped. But it's also nice because it leaves Sunday open for ministry, relaxation, and yes, football. Granted, I lose out on watching KU football lose another game, but I can do without that.
Going to Christ Church in Lake Forest was important because it is where our new friends go to. Naturally, we look to other church goers to help make decisions on where we should go, so when John and Karen, the Campus Crusade for Christ staffers working with the military, suggested we go there, well, go we went!
The most striking feature of the church is it's structure. The website does not do it justice. Pulling into the church parking lot leaves a person breathless. The bell tower is simply amazing. When I mentioned it to John, he said it was modeled after the old congregational churches of New England. The inside is also very beautiful. Very simple, yet absolutely stunning architecture.
As soon as we walked into the foyer area we were met by two ushers, one with the children's ministry and one that helped people as they went into the sanctuary. This was really good, especially since we had to make a few turns to get our kids where they needed to go. You never know how important a greeter service is unless you've gone to church without one, and we have, so we are grateful for CCLF and their outreach.
The pastor, Mike Flemming, is truly a gifted speaker. He's more mellow than some preachers, but he's sound. He went through a basic sermon on purpose last night, detailing the five things that make CCLF what it is. You can read them here. It really was a perfect sermon to hear as a visitor.
One thing that I wasn't overly happy with was the fact that we never went to our Bibles to look up scripture and scripture wasn't posted on the overhead displays. Pastor Mike gave scripture randomly through his message, but it just seemed off to me not to go there myself. I know this doesn't bother everyone, and I had considered leaving it out of this post, but it bothered me, so I put it in. It could be that this isn't the case every weekend, but it did happen this weekend.
After church, we talked at length with John and Karen, and even met the pastor (hopefully he's forgotten my website). It's a good church and it stays on our list. We'll see where we end up in the coming weeks.
2 comments:
I think it's a shame that most people don't even bring Bibles to church anymore! But at least at our church the pastor puts scripture up on the overhead and our SS teacher provides printouts. The cool thing is that they use different versions so people can see the variances in translations.
Scripture should be visible, very visible, in my opinion. Isn't all sound doctrine from the scripture? Whose word should I believe...pastor or Bible?
I agree Nate. If I'm ever a preacher, I'm going to challenge everyone to have a Bible, no matter what version. The chaplain at the chapel here on base did so the other day and it was so good to hear! See week 1 church hunt if you want to know more about it.
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