Bob’s thoughts:
When we visited Steffin Hill we promised we would come back to hear their pastor preach; we will have to honor that promise in the future. Had I spent time at the church’s website I would probably have known that the pastor would not be there today. There was a time I would have believed it was our poor planning, but I know that God leads us.
This is a small, comfortable Sanctuary and a very welcoming congregation. They could still use some signage, but today the organ volume was more appropriate to the volume of the choir.
The children’s sermon on echoing Christ was very well done. While longer than a children’s message should be, the pastor’s enthusiasm and children’s reactions made it work well.
The Prayer for Illumination called for Christ’s presence, which is often overlooked.
The sermon was also on echoing Christ, based on Acts 16:16-24 +. The female seer was referred to in Greek as prophesying in the spirit of the snake. With our demonic connection of snakes, I thought that interesting.
This group in the text was a Who’s Who of Bible lore: Paul, Silas, Luke, and Timothy, so we read with maybe an expectation of the good stuff. I am glad that he preached a little beyond the referenced Scripture to a Paul Harvey-type “rest of the story.” To have our heroes beaten, flogged, and thrown into prison is certainly a downer without the knowledge that they were praising God in prison and the ensuing good that transpired for the Kingdom.
I thought the sermon also went long, but that was overshadowed by the pastor’s enthusiasm. It was great to hear a pastor used by Christ present a message with passion and joy.
Jan’s thoughts:
So, today we returned to Steffin Hill to meet the pastor, as she was away the first time we visited (January 31, 2010). Soon after arriving we learned she was away again this Sunday also! Such a strange circumstance: perhaps it means something, perhaps nothing at all, but odd nonetheless.
Again the members of this church were extraordinarily friendly – nearly everyone we saw spoke to us.
The guest preacher today was Rev. Dr. Don Opitz, who apparently was known to the congregation. I appreciated when, following a strong anthem by the Chancel Choir (“Lift Up Your Songs of Praises”), Dr. Opitz approached the pulpit and said simply, “Hallelujah!” That was immediately followed by the Prayer for Illumination during which he stated that we were “trusting You (God) to attend to these words and use them to form us.” Wow.
The message, entitled “Echo Life,” was based on Psalm 115:1-8 and Acts 16:16-24 and included thoughtful notions I had never heard expressed this way before:
Our lives become an echo of what we worship – you echo your God;
You can truly hear, see, and speak when you are connected to the true Source;
The Christian life is not about trying harder – grace is the only hope.
The sermon seemed slightly long, but well worth hearing. I suppose we’ll go back again to hear Dr. Angleberger, but we’ll check first to be certain she’ll be there!
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