1028 Saturday night

I came home late last night, so I need to recap it now.

Mike arrived a bit late to pick me up, having overnaped at home. Carol is still recovering from her foot surgery, so she was resting at home. We arrived at SBCC and walked in just as Pastor Gary was beginning his sermon. He spoke a bit about his new series beginning next week called "TRANSFORM", which will be about how we can make significant and lasting changes in our lives. To illustrate this, he used a clip from the movie, "Transformers". It makes me wonder if we can fold up Pastor Gary and end up with Pastor Ken ....

Pastor Gary finished up his "Dangerous Church" series, with "Mission-Minded", and looked at mission statements of other churches in the area and across the nation. Many of them play it safe, with easy-to-reach goals. He spoke of the "lost"; those people who are far from God. He spoke of the Holy Commission, from Matthew 28:18-20, which reads: "Then Jesus came to then and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.' "

Note: SBCC's Mission/Purpose is helping people find and follow Jesus Christ. It's imprinted on the back of each week's program handout.

Pastor Gary revealed a disturbing statistic: that the average number of baptisms performed each year by the nation's churches has dropped to 8. Granted, SBCC's total for 2007 is 50, but it is nothing for us to gloat about, when you consider the one million people that live in the South Bay area. He closed the service with an audio-visual presentation of our recent baptisms at Seaside Lagoon.

After the service, I grabbed some dinner and met with a few friends. One of these was Ayako, who delivered some sad news that a mutual friend, Ai, will be moving to San Francisco very soon. I will miss hearing Ai's voice on the worship team. But I'll wish her well on her future endeavors.

The Walk With Jesus group study began promptly at 7pm. All of my small group was present, as we discussed The Parable Of The Unmerciful Servant. The discussion was lively as we debated on God's forgiveness being unconditional or not.

Afterwards, I spoke briefly with Liz; she was on her way to have dinner with her posse. We talked a bit about Koinonia's booth at the Harvest Fest this Wednesday at SBCC.

Mike drove me to visit with Carol. We were joined by Kiyomi, Judy, John & Rieko, and Lillian. We shared some dessert and fellowship, and were entertained by Carol's cats. Some of them were attracted to the tennis balls on my walker. Mike got me home around 11pm.