Southern Road Trip: Part 2

After arriving and settling in Saturday evening with Stephen and Sandra, went to look at a former funeral home, which they are hoping to convert into a facility for the church. Once again, there is no such thing as private property anymore in the US. Various government entities must give permission to do anything down to how chairs will be arranged. The founding Fathers would not recognize their country today. Was very blessed to attend the gathering of the congregation here. About forty adults were present, along with at least twenty children,a welcome change from the average of nine adults per group that i once counted among twenty New England house churches. Nine or ten may be socially comfortable but simply does not have the diversity of giftings and critical mass to accomplish very much. This group is somewhat hybrid in nature, blending traditional and house church elements. While purists may be dissatisfied, the combination of interactive teaching, Lord's Supper as a full meal, and elder led, consensus church government with a dedicated teaching time by a skilled and gifted teacher, and meeting in a conducive facility worked well. Had opportunity to interact with a number of the brothers and was impressed by their maturity, strength of purpose and vision, and willingness to integrate a new guy into their midst. I had visited the same group five years ago but most of the people had joined since then. There was a good mix of ages, and of races. Truly the Kingdom of God is open to all who will surrender to Christ. After a brief respite went to a second group, an offshoot some years ago of the first. I was told that they began at 4PM, and to my astonishment, they actually did. This is unprecedented in my experience with home based groups. This church was a little smaller with five families attending. Each of the men had something to share, and i was given an opportunity to speak a little on the Simple Life. Afterwards we enjoyed the Lord's Supper together, and i had the opportunity to speak with several people and receive several invitations for meals and fellowship. Returning to my hosts' home we spoke about various subjects, finding a strong commonality in our perspectives. This morning i read that New England is receiving yet more snow. Thank God i am here.