Halcyon Days

If you worshipped with us this past Sunday you know that Pastor Gene brought it!  I think everyone in the service felt the presence of the Spirit.  I know we were blessed 'cause Tracy was able to overcome some technical issues with barely a hiccup.  Anyway, it was a joy to have Gene and his family at worship.

This coming Sunday Pastor Fran will be coming down to preach.  I am filling in for our friend Rev. Harry Clark at the UCC so Fran will fill in for me.  Ray is going to be upstairs filling in for her.  This is like musical chairs with pastors as we all switch pulpits.  The gathered believers are the ones who really benefit from these changes since they are exposed to different preaching styles and perspectives on the gospel.  There is a great temptation for preachers to fall into a rut with their preaching and changing up like this jars us out of that habit.

The changes just keep coming!  The fifth Sunday of October is called Reformation Day and Protestant Churches mark that day with a celebration of all things reformed.  For the Presbyterian Church Reformation Day is when we renew our ties to Luther, Calvin and Knox.  Many churches have a bagpipper to commemorate our Scotch roots and First Niles is no different.  Our brother Mike will serve as the beadle [bedel] for this service and we look forward to seeing him in his tartan.

We hope that a sense of the many different elements of Christianity and worship emerge with all of these different preachers and styles.  Certainly we all have manners of worship that speak to us more than others, but that is not to say that there is one style that "trumps" another.  We are all part of one whole worshipping the same God and it seems to me that if we can bring ourselves to focus on our similarities more than on our differences we are better able to build the kingdom.