I hgrew up attending church but I didn't much like it and hated the preaching. It was long, dry and boring and my favorite words were "and in conclusion." I do remember one preacher, Rev Rowles. He was a big man with a little woman as a wife and a fat nerdy son who scored a perfect score on his SAT. Rev, Rowles told a lotof stories about himself from when he was in the Army.
I quit going to church shortly after starting college necause the local church never talked about Jesus. It was somehow offensive to me so I quit going for three years. My senoir year I went to church every Sunday. First I went with Sandra to early Mass, then with Linda to the 10 o'clock service at the second Baptist Church and hurried to meet Pam at the Methodist church.
In the evening I went to a Luthern church and the an Espiscopalian.
I never went while I was in the service and only attended churches my dad preached at or pastored. When I moved away from where he lived I seldom went until I moved to High Point. I started attending a small church near the house but there was something just not right there and I believe I stayed mainly to figure out what was wrong rather than for any other reason. After a year or so the pastor resigned and we got this man with really weird views and aftger several months I just could not handle him any more.
For the last fifteen years my attendance has been spotty at best and even when I attended on a semi-regular bases, if I missed a few Sundays no one seemed to mind. Maybe they would have cared more if I had been a member but I didn't want to join with a bunch of people who didn't care if I was there or not.
Eventually I quit going all together. It seems that God had something He wanted me to do but no one seemed to care if I did it from their church. Then one day I was driving along and saw this little white church and wondered what kind of people went there. A bunch of non conformist nuts, I supposed. Then one day I come home and there is a note from the preacher at One Way Baptist Church inviting me to church and inquiring about my salvation. My wife had placed it where she placing my mail and when she pointed it out, she said "Do you think you wahnt to go?" I said I didn't know.
I drove by the little white church and I wondered about the people attending there. I really couldn't see myself attending such a place as this yet I couldn't get the invite out of my mind. One Sunday my wife and I had a Sunday off together and I asdked her if she wanted to go. She said she would. I thought maybe the service started at 11 but it was already half over when we came in. We were greated warmly and as the preacher preached I saw my wife smile and I caught myself drinking in every word.
We are now members of that little white church.
Yesterday, because of the weather, the members had decided to call off the preaching part and to meet just to let the children practice their parts for the Christmas program. Then the preacher said he cot to thinking that the evening service is the only time I can attend so he prepared a little message just in case.
The evening service the pastor lets Robert and Dennis take turns preaching and Robert want to take his turn. He wanted to keep it short because this was just supposed to be a meeting to allow the kids to practice. The pastor said he had prepared a message and he wasn't going to preach it, he just wanted to share some highlights. As he shared we began to encourage him to keep on.
As it turned out, the kids never did get to practice and I got to hear two sermons in one service.
Unlike when I was a kid, I hung on every word and wished it would never end.
See you in church one day.
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