Sunday Morning Press Conference.

We've been short staffed at work lately, and this has necessitated my working 6 day weeks until things get worked out. This leaves Sunday as my only day of rest, and so in keeping with the whole 6 days on, one day off theme, we decided it would be the perfect time to try out some new churches in the area. We started this Sunday with the 11 am service at Asbury United Methodist. As we walked in the front door to the sanctuary, we were tickled to see that they had a table set up outside with lemonade and glasses for anyone who wanted some. Now that's a way to make someone feel welcome. We went inside and sat in a pew about half way up in the sanctuary. The first thing I noticed was the huge projection screen they had going above the pulpit. I guess it's been a while since I've been active in church, but apparently they were now multi-media experiences.

It was a good service. They had what they called the "pastor's press conference". During the offering people put questions into the basket and he spend the sermon time answering them. What really struck us was when he answered a question about same-sex marriages. The pastor explained that he had a hard time reconciling Jesus' message to love everyone, and his example of loving even those who society had cast out, with the sentiment among many christians that loving same-sex unions were somehow evil. He said that he didn't think the church would perform same-sex marriages during his lifetime, but that he looked forward to the day when he could preside over a same-sex union. That pretty much did it for me, and I told Emily that I think we may have just found our church.

Afterwards we went grocery shopping and picked up our first half-gallon of Shatto milk. -ja