Church elsewhere after eleven years

Yesterday marked my 11th anniversary as pastor at Fairview. I was also on vacation. So we went to church at The Mercy House in Anderson with son Isaac. Drew wasn't able to go, but Carrie went with us. Unfortunately Isaac's pastor wasn't there either - he just started a month long sabbatical - but we heard a good message from a guy named Carl, and enjoyed the service.

We left home about 8:55 and arrived a little after 10 in Anderson. The advertised start time is 10 am, but it is apparently 'rock-n-roll' time, because Isaac says it's usually 10:15 or 10:20 before they really start. We also had to take a little detour in Anderson because the Indianapolis Colts have training camp at the University, and yesterday was the first day. So we meandered down to 14th street, headed west, and found a spot behind the building.

We had also hoped Isaac's band might be leading worship, but that wasn't the case either. Some day it would be nice to make it for that, but it's kind of hard for me to get Sundays off. At any rate, the band was really good, and it was nice to stand with everyone else and worship. They also had communion, and you had the option of using either wine or juice. I chose the wine... because I could. And, as I said, Carl gave a nice talk on Revelation 3:14-22. I rather enjoyed listening to him - maybe even especially because of the long hair and tattoos (but that might be a personal preference). We even brought Bibles this time, so we didn't feel out of place.

I liked sitting in the old gym, on metal folding chairs, with the door open because there is no air conditioning, with lots of cool homemade art. It was a down Sunday numbers wise, but there was a nice crowd of maybe 50+. Very low-key, and nice.

Afterward we went to Real Hacienda for some Mexican food; then dropped Isaac off at the Exodus House (and looked at their gigantically tall corn) before heading north again.

I have one more day of vacation today, then start in on my 12th year here. Here goes...