Sunday, November 6, 2011

Valley Presbyterian Church

Today we worshiped at Valley Presbyterian Church, 237 Main Street, Imperial, PA 15126, 724.695.0300, www.valleychurchweb.com, Rev. Dr. Jeri-Lynne Bouterse, Pastor.

Bob’s thoughts:

Today we were back at Valley Presbyterian. I am sure I have commented on the good signage we have found there, but today I noticed how confusing the rest room signage is. The rest rooms were completely remodeled and I always try to turn in where the men’s room door was. There is a board with directional signage but a lot of extras that I found confusing.

This church has some good mission activities going on, including a new one, Watson Institute, where volunteers help care for a disabled child and provide a break for their family.

Some people were intentional in coming to welcome us.

The sermon was part of a series stressing God’s grace as opposed to our works. “Heavenly Boot Camp” dealt with what we need to do to be prepared for Heaven.

We were blessed to receive Communion and I was pleased to see the pastor was served the elements, but miss having the elements served with an oral reminder of their meaning.


Jan’s thoughts:

We have visited this church twice before, and this is such a friendly church that it’s always a joy to visit. Many people greeted us prior to the service as well as during worship.

The bulletin is one 8 ½ x 11 sheet folded into thirds, and one of those thirds contains the Order of Worship.

The music was blended, with a couple of traditional hymns and a couple of contemporary ones, including “I Can Only Imagine.” This is such a wonderful song in spite of the fact that it always brings me to tears as it was included at our son’s memorial service. All the music was well done, though.

I appreciated that Communion was served today as it seemed like it had been a while.

The sermon was part of a series about Heaven and was entitled “Heavenly Boot Camp.” It was based on 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 and Colossians 1:15-20. There were several statements that caught my attention, especially that people join the church with the best of intentions but sometimes end up serving the church instead of serving Christ.

But the major point was that no one can earn their way into the Kingdom, it’s all about grace, and we must “repent of the seduction of works.” That is such an easy trap to fall into. No matter where we are on our faith journey, that is a point we all need reminded of on occasion.

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