Bible Study - Community Shoreline Church

Just got back from a Bible study at a church down the road. Community Shoreline Church. I think they're a flavor of Baptist or something. 

The study was on the last chapter of Revelation. Was just an okay study. I'd say there were about 40 or so people there. 

The one cool thing I got out of it: He noted that the last verse of the Old Testament, in Malachi, ends with a curse. Whereas the last verse of the New Testament, in Revelation, ends with John proclaiming God's grace. An interesting parallel if you ask me. 

Free Gift: not a cool one like Lighthouse, but it's a little folder with information about their church. And it has a DVD! Just watched it. Kind of a slideshow, overview of their year. It appears they did quite a lot. Outreach. Fixing up around the chruch. And 14 baptisms. Not quite the 3,000 at Pentecost, but hey, they don't have St. Pete on their team, either. 

Overall? Nice place. I'll have to check it out on a Sunday for a full review. 

Peace and chicken grease, 

Rev O'Wandering

Numero Uno - Lighthouse Assembly of God

The first church on my list to visit was Lighthouse Assembly of God. Located in beautiful, historic (I can’t verify that), Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. 

I discovered this church because my good friend, Pastor Phil, is the children’s pastor there (hence the name, Pastor Phil). He, his wife, and newborn son, have been there for probably at least a year now and from what he’s told me, he likes it there. 

But will the Reverend approve of it? Keep reading to find out! 

Service was at 11am. Now remember, this was my first Sunday not at my old church, so it was a little weird for me. I didn’t have to be there early. I didn’t have to prepare a lesson. I didn’t have to find out what was going on with some suchness. I was there to…worship? 

And let me tell you. They do some worshipping. Don’t get me wrong, they weren’t rolling around in the aisles, shaking, or speaking in some weird tongue (lest we forget, God speaks King James English [blasphemy, I know]). But they were into it. The band was upbeat. The lead singer/pastor was guiding us along. At one point, I wanted to shake my booty a little, but resisted the urge. It was good…but it was long. Really long. 

So long, in fact, that I had to stop singing because I was out of breath. Afterwards, the pastor mentioned that last week they had announced that they were extending worship time, and if you wanted to sing or take some time out to pray, or whatever, you could. Unfortunately, he said this after the worship time. Had he said this beforehand, we would have been straight. But now I want to fight him (I kid!). 

After this was his message. And I have to say, the pastor does his thing. He spoke about a couple of things, but kind of based it all on James 1:5-8. Being confident in God and knowing that He is God and the provider and we shouldn’t doubt. Good message for our newly independent Reverend! 

As for the people, they were very friendly. I wasn’t assaulted at the door but I was approached by several people who were very friendly. Not crazy pushy and not stand-off-ish. Just right, if you ask me. 

Oh, and since I was the new guy, a very nice lady handed me a very lovely partying gift as I was leaving. It was a CD and a coffee mug stuffed with candy, wrapped in some shiny wrapping paper! Sweet! If I was rating churches strictly by their free gifts (I am) then the other churches have quite a challenge ahead of them! 

Overall, it was a nice church. Friendly people, good worship, and good message. I’m no expert but I’d say the Spirit was there. 

Until next week, 

The Wandering Reverend

And here we go!

Welcome to the beginning of a transition.  A change. 

Honestly, I'm a little apprehensive. 

Here's the deal, in my life, I've been a member of two churches. The Roman Catholic church that I attended when I was a kid and then the church that my parents started attending when I was a little older. That church, Southwest Church of Christ, is a great church. It was at that church that I decided to dedicate my life to Jesus, age of 13 or so. The people there are great. Really, I challenge you to show me more loving and genuine people! Nope, you can't do it, sucka!

So as with a lot of people, when I turned about 19 or 20, I wandered away from the church. Did my own thing (by "own thing", I mean mostly boozing, partying, and some more booze. Exciting, I know), and then, by the grace of a God that never lets go, through the calm and through the storm (that should be a song), I decided that all that partying wasn't that fulfilling and made my way back to the church of my youth, Southwest. 

I rededicated my life to God and got busy with a quickness. The new pastor, Nathan, was a cool dude, and the youth pastor, Phil, was cool. And there were lots of other cool cats. It was a cool place to get back on track. 

Well, Phil the youth guy moved on to other things and I was asked to take on the youth. And as any naive Christian did, I dove in head long. Not only did I take on youth, I was in charge of it. I jumped into the deaconship and eventually became chairman of the deacons. You can probably tell where this is headed. BURN OUT! 

I was burnt like toast, not to mention, church felt more like work than worship. Ugh. So after much prayer, I decided it was time to break out on my own. See what's out there. What's the haps, as the kids say (do they say that? if not, they should, it's the cat's meow). I still loved the S-Dub, but it just wasn't doing it for me. 

So the problem is, where to go? The land of worship is dotted with more options than the Wendy's value menu. Stick with the Christian church? Go to one of these new Brethren churches that all the kids like? Baptist? Methodist? Snake handler? Poison drinker? Whirling dervish? The possibilities are endless! 

So with some prayer, I decided to shop. Travel. Discover. Explore. And for fun, blog. 

I'm going to be hitting up the various churches in my area, several different denominations, sizes, styles, and flavors. I'm going to see what they're like. Are they crazy? Are they cool? Are they awesome? Who knows!? 

Well, I will in a few weeks as I set out to see what's out there. 

Stay tuned. If you want to join me, hit me up with an email. I'd love the company.

stevenemm@gmail.com

Word is bond, 

The Rev.