Gains and losses of our church
After a three-month hiatus, Karin & I have returned to our adult Sunday school class. Our attendance lapsed when Samuel was born, and, each week, we just kept on sleeping in through the Sunday school hour.
But now it’s good to be back. The current text is John Stott’s 1 & 2 Thessalonians: Living in the End Times. (The link is for a new edition that will be released this summer; Stott is the sole author of the edition we’re using.) It’s amazing how insightful the discussion is when we try to answer Stott’s study questions.
The class meets in a new room, around a stylish, curvy table. No, it isn’t quite like the table in the classic scene in 24 Hour Party People. The whole church is being frugally rearranged. Its basement rooms will soon be rented out to a fostering agency. The agency will pay less rent than it did for its downtown offices, and the church will recover a significant proportion of its maintenance costs. Everyone will win.
The church has another connection to fostering. It hosts a “foster closet,” in which donations of clothes, books, and other household items are collected for foster parents.
We attended our small group meeting tonight and heard some bad news: the church’s garage had been broken into. Nothing of value was stolen, but a lock was snapped off. Apparently, our church has been robbed for several years. It used to own a couple of vans which, from time to time, would be vandalized. Parts would be stolen, probably for resale in Chicago, and gas would be siphoned off. That’s the disadvantage of being located in such a picturesquely isolated part of town.
But now it’s good to be back. The current text is John Stott’s 1 & 2 Thessalonians: Living in the End Times. (The link is for a new edition that will be released this summer; Stott is the sole author of the edition we’re using.) It’s amazing how insightful the discussion is when we try to answer Stott’s study questions.
The class meets in a new room, around a stylish, curvy table. No, it isn’t quite like the table in the classic scene in 24 Hour Party People. The whole church is being frugally rearranged. Its basement rooms will soon be rented out to a fostering agency. The agency will pay less rent than it did for its downtown offices, and the church will recover a significant proportion of its maintenance costs. Everyone will win.
The church has another connection to fostering. It hosts a “foster closet,” in which donations of clothes, books, and other household items are collected for foster parents.
We attended our small group meeting tonight and heard some bad news: the church’s garage had been broken into. Nothing of value was stolen, but a lock was snapped off. Apparently, our church has been robbed for several years. It used to own a couple of vans which, from time to time, would be vandalized. Parts would be stolen, probably for resale in Chicago, and gas would be siphoned off. That’s the disadvantage of being located in such a picturesquely isolated part of town.