Unexpected Stop

Our visit to Franklin, TN was exciting and full of great experiences. The Robert Lingle family has been a part of our lives since 1992. It was then that Robert, serving as one of the elders, called me to ask me to come to Pascaogula to be the preacher for the Central Church of Christ. It broke my heart when they moved to Franklin, but I am so glad they could move to such a beautiful place. And I'm thankful for their hospitality this weekend. They attend the Fourth Avenue Church of Christ in Franklin. Fourth Avenue is among the more progressive churches in Nashville. They were hosting worship leader Ken Young's annual event called STREAM. JR and I attended the Saturday afternoon session, hearing great praise and worship with Hallal and Chris Seidman speaking. Saturday night we all went back to the church building for a wonderful night of instrumental praise and worship with some of the best known Contemporary Christian songwriters and musicians in Nashville. The building was packed and the songs were awesome. I heard some new songs that I'm sure will be popularized as acappella selections in the near future. Joe Beck put together the ensemble of writers and musicians associated with Spring Hill Music. Spring Hill Worship is a new series of great new worship songs that are being written. Very fresh and exciting. Joe is a multiple award winner and was recently Contemporary Christian Song Writer of the Year. He is a member at Fourth Avenue. One especially touching moment was when Joe presented Ken Young's fantastic song FAITHFUL LOVE, and as a surprise to Ken he had written music to it. It was so beautiful. I love that song any way we can sing it! Anyway, it was a great night and I bought a couple of CDs. Sunday morning worship was led by Ken Young and Hallal. A most touching moment was a soloist singing the story of the sufferings of Christ in the song The Via Dolorosa, while we watched scenes from The Passion of the Christ. Chris Seidman had a great message, there were multiple responses and a baptism. This growing church practices some things that make some uncomfortable, but at the same time they are reaching a large number of people who are hungry for a contemporary worship experience. I praise God for the traditional churches and the contemporary churches ... every church has it's own flavor. Every church will reach someone that another church could not reach. May we all do everything we can to lift up the name of Christ in a way that is authentic to us, and be thankful for others who reach out in different ways. After worship, we ate at Carabbas in Franklin ... delicious. We were very late getting away from the Lingle's, but we just enjoyed it so much. Unfortunately, Maggy was sick on our trip ... I'll spare you the details ... but we had to stop about ten times between Nashville and Montgomery. TL, we did pass by Cullman, but Maggy was so sick, we were just trying to get home. We made it to Greenville, AL, where we finally gave up and checked into a hotel. She is sleeping now and hopefully that will help her to feel better. We will try to finish our journey home tomororow, after our unexpected stop. Home. I like the shound of that. Thanks for all the comments and those who read every day.