Looking for Signs?

This morning we worshipped with the Mountain View Community Christian Church a little southwest of Denver.  Our worship experience was very different than what we experienced with the Korean congregation last week.  This is a church with a fairly new building.  During the "school season" they hold one Saturday night service and three services on Sunday morning.  Their total attendance from the previous week was listed at a little over 900.  The atmosphere was very casual.  Outside they had set up a coffee and donut table.  You could pick up your coffee and donut before you entered the worship center.  Most people arrived wearing shorts or jeans.  We were greeted  outside the main entrance and again once we entered the narthex.  Can you guess what the pastor's topic was for the day?  Unity was his theme.  He used Roman 15 as his text and emphasized how unity is a choice. One thing Renee and I were both captured by was the distinction he made between agreement (or disagreement) and unity.  We can disagree and still remain united.  They had stackable chairs on which everyone sat.  The pastor joked in relation to unity how some may have been ready to rebel against him because the seats were set in a completely different configuration than they were used to: a U shape.  People could not find "their" traditional seat location.  Appropriately, we ended with communion.  The pastor made comment before communion was served about the number of divisions which have taken place in Christ's Church over doctrinal issues  and between individuals over personal matters, forgetting the key to our unity which is Christ, symbolized in the bread and cup.

 We were mindful of all of you and the traditional acknowledgement of our military service personel past and present.  We missed sharing in that experience with you.

We ended our two weeks of counseling at Quiet Waters and have moved to Colorado Springs and the Glen Erie Conference Grounds for the next week.  The grounds are beautiful and a great place to reflect and work on the things our counselor suggested for us.  Yes, it may be summer vacation for our students, but we were given relational homework to help strengthen our marriage, and some personal assignments to help strengthen our relationship with God.  Our counselor suggested books for me like Wayne Cordeiro's Leading on Empty, Larry Crabb's The Pressures Off, and Gerald May's book Dark Night of the Soul.  For us as a couple we will be using the book Intimate Encounters by Ferguson and an exercise called a Container Exercise. 

We miss Bekkah and look forward to reuniting with her next Saturday.  We were able to meet with Vanessa for lunch on her way to the YMCA Estes Park Center, where she will be working this summer.
Continue to pray to all of us and God's work in our life.