A Sunday Afternoon Adventure

I promised my friends that I would make this into a blog post, so we’ll see how I do…

Our church in Rockford is starting a church plant on the south side of Chicago, around Tinley Park, to be exact. So yesterday I was generously given a ride there by my pastor’s family. When we reached the residential area of Tinley Park the boys in the back began shouting, “Christmas lights!! I see Christmas lights!!” in a very loud voice. And then…”Christmas lights!! I see Christmas–I see a family eating dinner! With spiked hair!” I assume that it was the family (or perhaps just one of them) who had spiked hair, and not that the dinner had spiked hair. So that was an amusing variation…but we were soon back to, “Christmas lights! I see Christmas lights!!”

We were rescued from a fate of Christmas lights when we reached the building where the church is meeting. It was a very nice study, they are going through the London Baptist Confession of 1689. I think 1689. Maybe it is 16??, but I’m not sure. Anyways, Pastor Y. (who will remain Pastor Y. lest anyone search him down and say, “so it was YOUR son screaming ‘Christmas lights!!’ all through our town on Sunday night”) taught on the Providence of God and how this relates to some tough questions like, “If God has everything planned, why should I bother doing anything? If God wants me to get a job, why should I bother looking?” and others.

Afterwards we had a fellowship time and some snacks. My friend Elizabeth M. made the most delicious snickerdoodle cookies (she will remain Elizabeth M. lest anyone kidnap her and force her to make 1,000 snickerdoodle cookies in order to gain freedom. Yes, they are that good) which I heartily enjoyed.

And then we had a nice long ride back to Rockford. This time seemed to fly because I was busily engaged in critiquing possible presidential candidates. So Pastor Y. asks, “who would you vote for in 2012 as president?” and my answer: “RON PAUL!!!” (all-caps and 3 exclamation marks means that I was practically shouting this.) And Pastor Y. is a sensible person and so realized there isn’t much chance that Ron Paul would actually be elected president. So he thought perhaps I should have some other backup possibilities. “Sarah Palin?” Me: “NOOOO!!!!” (this means that I was very loud and emphatic) “She’s a neo-con!!” And then, “John Boehner?” Me: “Um….” (this means I was thoughtfully thinking) “I don’t know  much about him. He must be a neo-con.” So their family was quickly introduced to what neo-con means, and they soon discovered that if a person is not Ron Paul or super-liberal, they are a neo-con…at least in my mind. They were informed that if anyone was on Fox News (besides Judge Napolitano) then I could definitely not support them, for Fox News is NEO-CON!!!” And by the end of it all he was trying to come up with the most neo-con-ish of all neo-cons in order to hear me exclaim in a horrified voice, “no!!! Not that person!!!!! They are NEO-CONS through and through!!! There isn’t a drop of blood in their body that isn’t tainted with the poison of neo-con ideology.”

All in all it was a very enjoyable time, my family rarely lets me rant and bash all the politicians like I enjoy doing. And attending the study and fellowship time at HRBF (Hope Reformed Baptist Fellowship, soon to be Hope Reformed Baptist Church) was very fun and interesting. At Grace Reformed we’re on Chapter 20 of the 1689 Confession, and at Hope Reformed they are on the early chapters…I don’t really remember going through those chapters at Grace, which means that 1) I heard it, but it was so long ago I don’t remember or 2) they haven’t even taught on it since we’ve been there. I think possibility 1 is more likely, but it doesn’t sound quite as good for me. 🙂

So if you happen to be in the Chicago area and want to hear a most interesting and knowledgeable pastor teach on the doctrines of the Bible (the pleasant and unpleasant ones both)…let me know, and I’ll give you more details. There should be a website up soon I will link to as well.

In conclusion, I had a wonderful Sunday. Good preaching, good food, good times.   🙂