My Dad joined us for worship today!

Today was a great service! I realize some people may feel a bit uncomfortable finding their seats while I'm preaching, but I'm really enjoying preaching first and then moving into the music and other parts of worship. Today we looked at John's letters to Ephesus, Thyatir and Pergamum. I'm preaching on the three problems faced by Pastor John's 7 churches; compromise (our topic today), persecution and apathy.

To illustrate how little changes over time can impact us, I showed this great clip from The Office - link. On a more serious note, to illustrate the seriousness of when we compromise with sin, how our sin can ruin the life of someone on the other end of the globe, we watched this video - link.

Yesterday was a pretty rough day for a guy from our church; Trent Tinker. It was his mom's funeral. Trent's parents had been my pastors when I was in 2nd and 3rd grade. The church was packed, Bernadine Tinker impacted a lot of lives.

Besides Trent's dad, I saw two other guys that had been my pastors. I was able to talk with one of them, Dan Arnold. Dan had a huge impact on me growing up. His passion for evangelism was contagious; it helped shape me into the type of pastor I am today. Dan and I were able to talk about church together; it was almost surreal to talk on a colleagial level with a guy that had been my pastor when I was a kid.

Well, here's the part that relates to my dad in worship. I put my dad on the speakerphone of my cell phone and wished him a happy father's day and had him pray for the dads in our church. It was a really neat experience to have dad join us for father's day while still in Burlington, IA. He had to leave his church early to take my call.