Church Surch Week 47

  "Trust in the LORD and do good.

Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.

Take delight in the LORD,

and he will give you your heart’s desires.”

Psalm 37: 3-4

I found Impact Family Church and decided to visit it because they met in a school. Any church that meets in a school is probably (a) young and (B) committed. Setting up and taking down a church every week takes people with passion. 

My only reservation was the name Impact. Would someone perhaps punch me? On the contrary, IFC gets high marks for pleasant, from Ted who met me at the door, to Melissa, the tour guide who showed me around, to Matilda who sat by me during the service and made sure I was dialed in. A dozen others greeted me and and made me feel welcome. IFC gets the Gold Wing Award for friendly. 

At four minutes to launch, I counted fifteen people in the cafeteria/sanctuary. Huh? But when the music fired up, the crowd built quickly to a hundred fifty or so. We started with worship, led by five singers and musicians and we rocked the heavens. The faithful, a good mix of ages and races, sang and worshipped with abandon. This is cooking along to be a great church. 

Then we had the sermon. 

I'm sorry, but I get testy on 'End Times' sermons. Pastor John introduced Pastor Allison, his wife. She preached about the end times and demonstrated how we are close to the end of the age, using what I would consider having heard from other people, speculation and the Internet. I kept thinking, "Based on what?" as she expounded on the Muslims goal to dominate the world, the nations gathering to destroy Israel, which could both be true but wouldn't necessarily mean the end of the world. Imagine someone born in 1900, by 1945 wouldn't he think the world was about done? What about during the Black Plague? Or any country during a bloody civil war? And what does all this have to do with Daniel 2:1-37, with the feet of iron and clay? 

She really lost me when she declared that France is becoming more socialist (do ya think?), is now taxing the rich (people making over a million dollars), at a rate of 75% and the rich are pouring out of there. So? What's that got to do with the end of of the world? Then she really lost me with Ireland on their lips and paying $10 a gallon for gasoline. Didn't the Irish think it was the end of the world during the Potato Famine? Or perhaps they hoped it was. 

I'm no theologian, and for some reason God made prophecies that don't give us specifics. Usually a prophecy comes to pass and people say, "So that's what it meant." That would be me. 

We certainly could be living in the end times, and Jesus said that no one knows the day or the hour. On a personal level, what would I do differently if it's the end times or it isn't? I should still live like time is running out, whether it's my clock or the earth's. 

As I left, I felt like the church, sixteen years old, isn't really growing. Maybe because they're just a little bit out there and they're a developed taste.