Week 48 – Relevant Church – Christian

May 7, 2012 by 52 Churches 52 Weeks 1 Comment

At Markyay’s encouragement we attended a very new start-up Church in a school cafeteria in our neighborhood. We saw their signs posted around the neighborhood advertising their Saturday night 5:00 p.m. service. I was game for church, dinner and the Avengers at AMC. It was such a fun evening and I loved it because I am perpetually behind on everything in our personal lives. Family Management needs to be a career choice. Is it just me or is there so much stuff to have to pay attention to – insurance, investments or lack thereof, college apps, SAT exams, schedules, doctor appointments, etc?

The Pastor and Assistant Pastor had both recently moved their families to Ahwatukee at God’s encouragement. At the 5pm service it was basically the families of the Pastors, my girls and I and three others. Maybe less than 20 people in the cafeteria. It was interesting that for such a new church they have all their marketing materials, slide shows, music and service all worked out. I was reading on the St. Helen Catholic Church website that they started in 1977 with a handful of families and 30+ years later they serve over 2100 families. All churches must start somewhere and it was kind of exciting to really see a church in its infancy. The Pastors are very experienced and their kids served as greeters. It was so adorable.

Pastor Dan Rogers is an engineer which is really cool because sometimes science minded people don’t believe in God; they believe in science. He is a student of Hebrew and referred to the Greek several times. The language aspect, translations passed down through time and the cultural understanding of religion or scripture are fascinating. He recommends that if we have trouble reading and understanding the Old Testament the best book to start reading in the bible is the Book of John. I am actually going to try to do this. He explained that God is not simple but complex. God exists outside of time and views time from the end of time looking back toward the beginning of time. Hmmmm…that’s cool. He reminded us that we are fallen people living in a fallen world and sin corrupts us. It is just so.

The Pastor spoke of Tithing and it’s importance in our lives. Interesting twist that I just finished the final class of Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University class this week. The chapter was on Giving. Dave Ramsey says that God is so awesome that he doesn’t need our money – he is God after all. ALL the money is already his. The act of tithing is a reminder to us. God literally gave his only son to wipe away our sins. The least that we can do is be generous and Give 10% of our income. I believe that giving and being generous offers my family a certain level of protection.

The Saturday night service is held once a month and is a bible study of sorts. I learned a lot about how God humbled himself by becoming flesh and Jesus is our way out. During his time on earth Jesus did everything we would expect God to do. He lived without sin, he stated that he is one with the father and that the father lives in him. It was so interesting.

The families were so nice and I hope they grow an amazing church that furthers Gods goals on our planet.

http://relevantchurchaz.org/

Link to Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University which teaches a bible based approach to managing your money and finances. http://www.daveramsey.com/fpu