Presbyterian

This morning I attended a small Presbyterian church. It was a nice little service. For the first time since I've been up here, I found a church that lights a Christ candle at the beginning of service and has a children's sermon. Apparently these are not "Methodist only" traditions. I was also glad to find that they sing out of hymnals! This may sound a little strange, but this is the first church up here I've been to that still uses hymnals! (or used only a piano and ORGAN for music) Anyway, there was lots of prayer and response readings. The sermon was about the coming of Christ and was taken from the passage in 1 Thesselonians 5:1-11. We also took communion, which was served a little different than I've seen it done. There were four servers that took 4 plates of bread, then actually walked through the congregation serving it. Everyone waited until everyone was served and then all partook of the bread at once. Then small cups of juice were passed out in the same fashion, but you drank this as soon as you received it. The offering was also collected in a somewhat interesting fashion. A couple and their 3 children collected the offering. The oldest son took one of the offering plates down the center while the mother accompanied her small daughter down one side and the father accompanied his young son down the other side. Then the father helped the boy bring the combined offering up and place it on the alter. I also found the service order interesting. There were greetings, announcements, then readings and a hymn, followed by the Scripture reading, Children's sermon, special music, and the sermon. Communion followed the sermon, another hymn, the offering, then sharing of joys and concerns. Lastly came another hymn and the blessing. The people in this congregation were small in number, but very friendly. I don't think I've shook that many hands or introduced myself that many times in a church service since I've been here. This church reminded me a LOT of the church I grew up in. Overall, a nice experience.

Obstacles

Well, these past few Sundays have been a little frustrating. Three Sundays ago I tried to go to a nearby Bible Baptist church. Their sign said that the service was at 10:45, so that's when I got there - only to find out that they had recently swapped their service and Sunday School so that the service was at 9:00! I was going to try again last Sunday, but a storm knocked our power out for a while, and I didn't care to take a shower in the dark. So, I slept a little longer and went to the UB church again. This morning, I had my mind set that I was going to go to the Baptist church again. I got there a little before 9:00, and there were 2 cars in the parking lot. Turns out they switched their times just for today and were having service at 10:00. I didn't feel too bad because a woman showed up about the time I did and she hadn't gotten the e-mail about a changed time in service. Anyway, once again I walked back. I'm going to try one more time. Hopefully nothing changes then!