hmmm....

Shaker Town of Pleasant Hill, near Mt. Zion UMC


So one of the guys down the hall invited me to church with him today. It was Mt. Zion United Methodist Church. Awesomeness.

First, this church is out in the middle of nowhere, which in eastern Kentucky terms means Heaven. The church is a small white country church with no running water on top of a hill surrounded by rolling green pastures, old stone walls, and horses. It must have been built by someone who liked Norman Rockwell.

The church service itself was very traditional. We did liturgy and sang only hymns. What was funny though is that this congregation isn't an old, stuck-in-its-ways congregation. It is alive. There are all sorts of people there, but mostly college and seminary students. In a church that has no running water and seats maybe 75, there were about 100 people, mostly students. They were not only worshipping, but they also had a very apparent bonded community. These were people who cared about each other. They were a church family. Not just because they all attended on sundays together either. They invest in each other's lives through small groups, through community service projects like adopt a highway, a trip to Zimbabwe, and one guy even stood up and said his roof was leaking and he needed help fixing it and more than 10 guys volunteered. Wow.

And they also made my friend Joe and I feel welcome. Both of us intend to go back. Why? Because we felt loved.
(Suddenly, music starts playing. It is an organ. It is playing the familiar hymn, "We Are One In the Spirit.")

So there are two pastors, working for free. One is a professor at the seminary and one at the college. They do it because they want to help people come to Christ. That HAS to be another factor of why this church is doing so well.(That they do it for Christ, not that they do it for free. They do it for free because they get paid for their professorships(word?))

We are One in The Spirit,
We are One in The Lord.
We are One in The Spirit,
We are One in The Lord.
And we pray that all unity may one day be restored.

So I have been invited to another church by another friend and will go with them this week, but I think perhaps Mt. Zion may be the place for me. We shall see.

And they'll know we are Christians by our love,
By our Love,
Yes they'll know we are Christians by our love.

That's all.

peace out,
hersch