Again, this post is a few days late because I went to a conference for our region of the Missionary Church.  For those unfamiliar with our denomination, the Missionary Church is divided into several regions around the USA geographically.  Our region covers churches in Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.  We met in Gurnee for two days to conduct business, to hear reports from various churches and from the national office as well as plan and cast vision for the coming year.  I love attending these conferences mainly because of the fellowship and interaction I get from meeting and fellowshipping with various pastors.  Some of these pastors are of larger churches, but many of them are churches like Groveland which are a bit smaller in attendance.  I do not know if you know the experience of learning and helping peers in your fields of business but I love hearing from pastors who are going through the same struggles and experiencing areas of praise as well.  Pastoring can sometimes be a lonely adventure, but knowing there are others who are like me encourages me to remain faithful to the call of God on my life.  And I hope that I intern can inspire or help others by sharing my experiences as well.

That is why in-person worship experiences are so important as well.  I know you can hear great sermons online (I heard one great one traveling up to Gurnee) and praise music is available everywhere, but when you gather together as a church of like-minded people who worship the same God and have some of the same problems/joys you have, is just one reason why you cannot “phone-in” church.  Literally rubbing elbows with someone in the pew with you and sharing our lives together as we serve and worship Jesus cannot be done via computers or zoom calls.  So take a couple of hours each week to go and worship in a church building.  I can almost guarantee that your Christian walk will grow stronger and you will be encouraged.