Come with me to my church....

Candy at http://www.keepingthehome.com/ took us to her church, so to speak, so here's what it was like at my church yesterday morning.

First of all, we arrived on time, which was nice! We fellowshipped with others for a few minutes (everyone has to ooh and aah over Evan..:) ) and then the organ begin to play, "Draw me Nearer". Our Sunday School Superintendent began the service with a little exhorting. We then were led in song, "I'll Fly Away" (we use the old red hymnals--none of this fancy 'praise' music that just makes you feel good) by a great singer and good friend in our church. After the song, our children came up front to sing (led by me). We did a few songs and then had a prayer time with the children. Next, we had prayer request. We stood and prayed over the requests and then we went on to Sunday School.

I teach the Upper Elementary (9-12 yr olds) class and we chatted for a bit before we got started. I taught on Abraham and Sarah (when they were Abram and Sarai) and God's covenant with Abram. We talked about Abraham's faith in God (descendants that are inumerable when he has no children and leaving to go to Canaan) and his lack of faith (going to Hagar to have a descendant). The students then did a Unscrambled Word Puzzle with words from the lesson. I also had a crossword puzzle as well for them. I do not follow a curriculum even tho I could. I just sort of a Bible study with them at this point.

After Sunday school, our children go to Children's Church (it is Bible teaching with skits or activities, no movies or anything--sometimes they have puppets and they sing songs...I have snuck by and listened and they really get taught the Bible) taught by a really good friend of mine who also happens to be our Interim Pastor's wife. She is a wonderful Christian woman. Our children are in church with us on Sunday nights and Wed nights.

In the sanctuary, we played an instrumental for the offering, "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" (I played piano and my husband played the acoustic guitar...we also have a bass player, drum player and organ) and then my husband, our great friend (who led the congregational singing earlier) and I sang a trio, "I Stand Redeemed". I love singing with my husband and others. We have lots of great singing great singers in our church--we are fortunate. We don't sing by tapes or anything--old fashioned in our worship service.

We heard a great message by our interim pastor (that's he and his wife in the photo with us at our baby's dedication). He read from Genesis about Noah and talked about the "Mirth, Madness, and Mercy" of Noah's experience with building the ark (how ppl made fun and were partying, the madness of getting it prepared and the mercy that God showed by giving the ppl seven more days). He related it to us, of course. It was a convicting message and he gave an altar call, but no one came forward. :/ I played the piano for the altar call and sang a song about Mercy.

We prayed in the altars (yes, we still have altar benches) for a few minutes and we went back to our seats to prepare to leave. After a few announcements, we were dismissed in prayer. After fellowshipping for a few minutes, it was time to go home.

I go to an Independent Church of God. Most are conservative in dress and are good, Godly people. We are the only family who is homeschooling and who is leaning toward a large family, but we have great friends and family there.

We had 67 in attendance there. Lots were out due to Memorial Day Weekend. We are currently in the process of 'looking' for a pastor. Our pastor of 30 years resigned/retired this year. We miss them--they were great friends of ours. We are enjoying our associate pastor's preaching--nothing but TRUTH--NEVER watered down!

Hope you enjoyed our church service!!