The faces of fellowship

2:29 p.m. Today's project was to join our daughter Heather at her church, Sandals, with a "view" to seeing her pictures up on the screens during a special child and family dedication service. (She is their photographer). The fellowship meets at the cavernous Cal Baptist gymnasium.

Steve and I had never been there, but our kids have, as have the grown children of a number of our friends, many of whom are Cal Baptist students. Rumors have abounded about Sandals for a while, specifically that it is an "emergent" church. I would be hesitant to form any kind of judgment from listening to just one sermon. (Nothing less than a full appointment to discuss doctrine with the pastor would be suitable for forming a fair judgment, in my view!) I enjoyed the prayers for the young families, including prayer for babies yet to be born, and couples crying out to God for the ability to conceive a child. The worship was good and the onscreen testimonies were moving. the church, along with Grove Community Church, is supporting help for AIDS victims in Africa with a walk-through exhibit coming up soon.

Pastor Matt Brown preached a sermon using Genesis chapters 1-3, Exodus 3 and Romans 12:1, on the topic "the land is spiritual." Sandals is in the process of building their own worship center in the Hunter Park industrial complex in the north end of Riverside. He supported his theme with Hebrew translations that I will check out at my leisure, but all in all, he made his point.

The service closed with more worship, the song being the one about "God's work still to be done in this city." I was surprised that there was no altar call, but I am a Calvary Chapel person through and through, and to me, evangelism is always appropriate! Heather went home to make bisuits and gravy for Nick for lunch (yum!), and we came home for a much more casual lunch. I also got a spaghetti sauce--with our own canned tomatoes-- going in the crockpot, so we can have meatball sandwiches for dinner.

We probably won't be back to Sandals, even though we enjoyed spending time with Heather and supporting her photography ministry. That part of being a parent never changes, does it? As for the rumors about that church, I remember when my church of 22 years, Calvary Chapel Riverside, now Harvest, was being denounced as a cult by more traditional local churches back in 1980! The truth always comes out, because God's Name is holy, to be honored, the praises of His people are glorious--and His Word, the full counsel of God, is the only source of truth!

We are very much looking forward to enjoying the Word of Truth this evening at our Calvary MoVal Home Fellowship. We are easing back into the routine of eating an early dinner and enjoying the unity that gathering around the scriptures brings to our family of believers!