Why go to church?

I admit it.  I have been slacking about going to church the past few weeks.  I’ve decided to sleep in or take time to relax instead of getting up and going.  But this morning I got a text from our contemporary worship leader telling me she was going into the hospital to have her baby (yay!) and asking if I could come sing at the service this morning.  Well now I had to go because I had a commitment to fulfill.

And it was a good thing I went because the sermon was all about our commitment to the church.  The minister said that we have NOTHING more important than our commitment to our faith and our church because it is the only thing that really matters in life. He reminded us that there is NO GOOD EXCUSE to not participate in church.  It was something that I already knew but I needed to be reminded of.  

The part of the sermon that really got to me was when the minister told the story of Anne Porteous, who was a founding member of the church.  (She and her husband, Al, “adopted” my family when my mom had to have open heart surgery because they knew we didn’t have any family in town.  They have ever since been known as our adopted grandma and grandpa.) He talked about the passion that Anne and Al had when they were founding the church.  She told the minister that there hasn’t been a day that she has come to Orchard Park and not felt that passion about the church and the people in it.  I loved being reminded of where the church started.  It makes me that much more excited to be a part of it and help decide where it will be going.