An awesome day!

It felt so good today to be back in Bible study at Victory. I had not seen my other church family in about 6 weeks. I left for WI mid-June with the entire month of July the class being on recess.

On the ride over to Victory, I had called my mom and we talked the 30 minutes it takes to get over there, parked, and into the building. I was in the narthex when I said 'good-bye' and went in the kitchen where the class was being held. When I tucked my phone away, I must have accidentally pressed the button and recalled my mom. Oops! She was able to listen to much of the class but could not disconnect from my call! She said it was like being there, listening to our conversation. We never got to the actual Bible study at all.

I guess it was my "fault" for getting us off track because before class began, I asked Pastor if he was keeping up with the proceedings at the Synod convention. He asked me about the Bible translation decision and I told him what I knew thus far. Then, one of the people asked who gets to go to the convention and how delegates are chosen, etc.

This grew the discussion even further off track to women's roles in the church, men's roles in the church and home, looking up passages to support this doctrinal stand, and so on. Like Mom said, it was pretty interesting. When our time was up, one of the ladies said something about not even getting to our study, and I said, "All I did was ask Pastor if he was watching the Synod proceedings....", which made everyone chuckle. But it was an excellent discussion which needed reviewing.

Two of us got public admonishments, however. One man, whose wife was there, was admonished for not coming to the congregational/voter's meetings. She said she has no vote on decisions because he won't attend, and Pastor reminded him how valuable his opinion and Biblical knowledge would be for the others. 

The most recent big decision was establishing fixed worship times. This couple didn't think that was such a big deal, they'd come whatever time the first service was held. Pastor explained the process used to make the options available for choosing, the surveys sent out, and the voter's making the decision. The focus has to be on the church as a family and not making decisions without conferring with everyone, etc. 

                                 

He said all things had to be considered including the length of time it takes folks to drive to church and home again, what time will be left for Bible study, and how close to lunch the 2nd service would let out for folks who have kids...I said, "Kick-off...." and then I got my public admonishment. Pastor said that not one person mentioned football in the surveys or at the meeting. Everyone chuckled but my other WI friends said it would figure in hugely (as Justin would say, "One time zone over...) in Green Bay. Their former church sold the parking spaces to fans who attended the game, and being so close to church, coming and going from worship would be extremely difficult. 

I guess the reason no one mentioned it at the meeting was because most of the attention was focused on the first service and not the later one! Pastor said he attends the Jaguar games and gets there in time for kick-off, no problem. My thought is this---if the college games were on Sundays with kick-off at 1:00 pm, it would have shown up on the survey! Especially since folks have to drive to get to the games, not played locally. Or to watch at home. But, Pastor was quick to say that this is why you confer with the family, to make such decisions with everyone in mind. It was an excellent class despite not opening our booklets at all! Plus, Mom got to sit in until my battery died on my phone!