Church

We had a great time at church last night. We had a pot lunch dinner at the church before the service – which is always enjoyable – then Kevin Walker preached a sermon from the parable of the prodigal son. It was different than most of the other’s I have heard from that passage. To get it kicked off he had two men from the church come up and put on a party hat.

They were each given a bag of noise makers (the kind you low through to make that irritating wazoo sound) to pass out to the congregation. He then explained that the message was “Don’t miss the party” and he held up a sign the read, “It’s Party Time!” When he held up the sign during the sermon we were all to blow our noise makers.

It was a great sermon on why we miss God’s “party” of rejoicing when a prodigal comes home; work is too important, we are angry about something, all we can think about is ourselves, etc. I took notes as I usually do so Mama had to make the noise for both of us. He got some great congregational participation.

Mama wore herself out getting food ready for the dinner. We took a pot of chili, a pan of cornbread, a pan of biscuits, a salad, a gallon of tea and a tray of chocolate covered peanut butter crackers. There was plenty of food there and there are always plenty of desserts. I tried not to eat too much since I would be leading the singing to open the service, but I still had difficulty taking a deep breath. Thankfully we only sang one song and turned the service over to the Walkers.

The senior Walkers are Mama’s and my age so their children are the ages of our children – several are married, one has a very young child. Yet after the children went to Bible College each of them returned to carry on the ministry with the parents. It is a great testimony of the merits of a properly run ministry. It is made even more outstanding by the fun they all have together.

After the first couple of songs they tackled the song “Excuses” which is never easy since there are so many lines spread out through the singers performing it. Sure enough on the second part of the song they all were messing up but they kept going until they got to the oldest son who simply sang, “He just sang my line.”

When he did that they couldn’t hold it together and started laughing, the joy of which carried over into the congregation. They finally regrouped and got through the second part of the song successfully, but it was hard since they kept stifling back a laugh at each line. They finished with a slow melody – a solo with backup vocals. The youngest brother said something as they were leaving the platform and the laughter began again. It was fun to watch the little ones in the church as they watched what was happening. They were not sure what was going on but they knew it was something really fun.

We got home late - happy we went.