Sunday with the Saints in Red Bay, AL

Sunday with the Saints in Red Bay, AL

Irene and I are unabashedly, unashamedly Christians.  So, on every Sunday we possibly can we meet with the church in the area we are in with Trekker.  In Red Bay, AL a congregation meets about 1/2 mile from the Service Area where we are parked.  That makes it nice!

Services at the Red Bay Church of Christ on Sundays are:

  9:30 AM - Bible Study

10:30 AM - Morning Assembly

   6:00 PM - Evening Assembly

The church here (do you know the word "congregation" is NEVER used in the New Testament when referring to a group of Jesus' followers meeting together?) has 3 elders (men that meet the qualifications of 1 Tim 3 and Titus 1) and a local evangelist named Scott Webster.  Scott teaches the adult class and preaches in the morning and evening.  The class this morning was on Genesis 1:14 to the end of the chapter.  The morning sermon was about "My day in heaven."  The sermon this evening was on what the bible means by man being created "in the image of God."

I will profess that the ONE thing I REAAALLLLLYY miss being a Sojourner is teaching/preaching.  A gift from God I have is the ability to help people understand the scripture and "get it" when it comes to the "big picture" of God's eternal purpose.  Often, in our traveling, I find myself to be like Jeremiah when he says in Chapter 20:

Jeremiah 20:9 - And if I say, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with forbearing, and I cannot contain.

I often offer to preach or teach at different places, but since the church there doesn't know me from Adam and certainly doesn't know if I am doctrinally sound or a cesspool of false teaching they say "Thanks" and move on.  So, I'm having to listen oftentimes (though not here at Red Bay) to lessons without much scripture or being taught by men that don't understand the bible all that well.  I will say I honor a man who will stand before us and STRIVE to teach the truth to the best of his ability but in many small (10 - 40 member) churches there isn't anyone that has a great grasp of scripture.  My ministry has always been to congregations that could NOT afford to pay a preacher.  Small churches - Delphi, Indiana; Frankfort, IN; the Ouabache church of Christ in Lafayette.

Ah well, I'm a sojourner and this mission "is what it is!"  So, I just try to say as much in bible class as I can without making it seem as though I'm trying to "take over" the class.  Too often in the Lord's church (and MORE and MORE as time is going by) the churches are fulfilling the statement of Hosea 4:6 - "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."  "Fluff" is what stands for preaching nowadays.  Even many of the "best" of preachers today don't fulfill the commands of Paul to "PREACH THE WORD!" and Peter "If any man speaks, let him speak as the Oracles of God."  Now they talk all ABOUT the bible but rarely QUOTE the bible.  Offering up to the church the wisdom and philosophy and reasonings of man and not the words of God as a sermon.  Whatever happened to "Book; Chapter; Verse?"