Let it snow on Sunday

Wow, that was some storm we had here in Old Fort. I think we had at least 6 inches of snow with drifting and high winds. This has to be the worst storm I have been through as a pastor on a Sunday morning. I spent most of Saturday watching the weather and wondering how bad it would be. I know many people were wondering if we were going to close (cancel worship) and many other churches in our area did. Thats just something I have never done as a pastor before and wouldn't know what else to do on a Sunday morning if we did. I have always told our congregation no matter how bad it is I will always be there and if they wanted to come that would be fine. Why tell people what to do anyways? If people can't come they won't come. For those who can and want to still come, we leave them that option. In the end it is a win for everyone. Funny to me that 60,000 fans made it to the Browns game yesterday and never gave the weather a second thought.

We did keep the doors open (we did cancel our 11AM service) for our first two services and had about 60 people show up. Families came with their children and we worshiped together. However it wasn't exactly what we had planned on doing in the week leading up. We sang and prayed together. Instead of preaching I lead a small group time with those who were there and we shared the passages in Matthew about Jesus' birth. We talked together about what these verses mean to us. We also shared what God was doing in our life and how He has been navigating us in these past few weeks since we began our series "GPS... Navigating Life". These services were totally different than what we have normally done and God moved in a big way. People shared stories about how God was changing their life. Others shared their thoughts on scripture and helped people grow in their understanding. It was kind of a serene experience being inside with a small group of people while the storm outside raged. We really sensed and felt God's presence. We were laid back , relaxed and had stepped out of our normal routine on Sunday mornings.

It reminded me that we all need to step out of the traffic of normal life. At some point in time we need to leave our routines and discover new experiences. I believe that God had a plan for us on Sunday and that was to step out of the normal and realize that no matter how bad the storms are we can still worship Him in many different ways. Those of us who came worship together. The truth is for any of us that stayed home we could still worship too. I wonder how many families got together yesterday morning at their home and sang songs together, shared scripture together, and prayed together. You can hold church at home if you need to. I bet God moved in a different way in many of our hearts because of the unique circumstances. Many of the people that came to Old Fort Church commented afterwards on how cool it was for us to worship in the way that we did. We all felt God's presence in a completely different way than we were used to.

This furthers my conviction that no matter how bad it is we will always try to have the church open on a Sunday because you never know what God will do (at the very least Mike and I will be there). I had no idea of what he was going to do yesterday but then again He did. In the long run His plan was far better than any we had put together. God is so good. Blessings, Your Dreaming Pastor