Sunday, October 14, 2018

Mars United Presbyterian Church

Today we worshiped at Mars United Presbyterian Church, 232 Crowe Avenue, PO Box 805, Mars, PA 16046, 724.625.1365, www.mars-up.org, Rev. James Steiner, Interim Pastor.


Scripture – Job 13:1-12 NIV

“My eyes have seen all this, my ears have heard and understood it. What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you. But I desire to speak to the Almighty and to argue my case with God. You, however, smear me with lies; you are worthless physicians, all of you! If only you would be altogether silent! For you, that would be wisdom. Hear now my argument; listen to the pleas of my lips. Will you speak wickedly on God’s behalf? Will you speak deceitfully for him? Will you show him partiality? Will you argue the case for God? Would it turn out well if he examined you? Could you deceive him as you might deceive a mortal? He would surely call you to account if you secretly showed partiality. Would not his splendor terrify you? Would not the dread of him fall on you? Your maxims are proverbs of ashes; your defenses are defenses of clay.


Bob’s thoughts:

After some confusion over a church start time not being updated on a website, we ended up with time to kill and found a good breakfast place with delicious coffee and a church nearby where we could worship.

This small church is older but has a modern feel to it. There are dual projection screens and a third for the side-facing choir. The choir sounded pleasant but the print on the screens was small and so poorly contrasted as to be mostly unreadable. The congregation is older and I’m sure would benefit from more readable monitors.

I might have to pick up the book from the children’s message for our grandchildren. The message went well and was a good segue to today’s message: How NOT to Console a Friend, a favorite subject of mine. The valuable advice: show up, shut up, and keep up.

My favorite memory is visiting a widow from our church. I never spoke a word; I got her water, tissue, held her hand, steadied her walk, I listened only. She commented later that what I said meant the most to her in her sorrow. Be there. Place a reminder on your calendar to send a note on the anniversary of the loss. Don’t hesitate to bring up the loss, even if the bereaved doesn’t want to talk then about the person, they will still appreciate knowing you remember.

Let them talk! My therapy when our son was killed was to talk about our loss and his life and witness. Jesus Christ got us through the tough times but talking about him let us recover some sense of reality. It is a new normal and it takes time to get there.

A few people said hello and a woman spoke to us after the service, sharing their hopes of rebuilding as a church during this interim period. We did see some younger folks in worship, which is a good start. I don’t know if they have done a church assessment yet but hope they are praying to discern what God wants next for His church.


Jan’s thoughts:

After an unpredictable morning and redirection, we arrived just before the 11 a.m. service.

A few people welcomed us in the short time before the service began, and others greeted us during and after worship.

It has been 9½ years since our last visit to this church and we found it interesting that we recalled only one physical element of the facility: the doors separating the sanctuary from the fellowship area.

The sanctuary is traditional and the atmosphere formal…this felt like the church in which I grew up. It has been some time since we followed along with a bulletin and an order of worship.

The 11-member choir wore identical robes and a group photo was displayed on the monitors during the anthem.

The church welcomed Rev. Liddy Barlow as the guest preacher. Rev. Barlow has served as Executive Minister of Christian Associates of Southwest Pennsylvania since April 2014.

The message was entitled “How NOT to Console a Friend” and was based on both Job and her personal experience with loss. I appreciated her positive perspective on what one can do to comfort a friend in grief:

1 – Show up. In other words, be there, connect, and offer to perform specific tasks or functions as opposed to saying “Let me know if I can do anything.”

2 – Shut up…and listen. I have found this hard to remember sometimes.

3 – Keep up. Just as there is no timeline for grief, there should be no expiration date on showing care and concern for a friend who is experiencing a hard season of life.


Our prayer for this church:
Lord, we pray You will unite Your church in one accord to follow Your direction. May we all know the joy of serving You. Amen.

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