Membership Saturday

Its a picture-perfect Saturday afternoon here in Suburbia Majora, and I'm sitting in the back of a room full of folks (32 in all) who've given a pristine day in order to attend Celebration Church's inaugural Membership Class. I find this especially cool as because at this time last year, this same number represented our total constituency.

The class has started out with Father Toby Larson sharing his thoughts on "What is the Church?" These thoughts centered on ideas concerning the state of the church here in America, the state of believers, and the role of "The Team".

In a segue, Toby then did an "around the room" introduction, asking folk to introduce themselves by first name and stating the "one place" that they might take a visitor here in the local area. Responses varied from visiting Carl's for a malt, to a visit to Arlington National Cemetery.

Our attention was then turned to Psalm 56, which Toby then used as a subject in which to discuss our trust in the Almighty.

Following a short break, the group was blessed by Coston Cheatham (hope thats the correct spelling), then Toby addressed questions received following the psalm.

Out of the gate, Toby stressed the point that the church can only do so much in the instillation of Faith into our young people. This is first, the mission of the family and the home. "What happens in the home will reflect in the Church". To provide an apt illustration, he spoke of the family life of Martin Luther. (A bit of trivia, but the Luther home was the first Protestant parsonage).

Toby stressed the fact that there are plenty of openings for service within the church.