The church discussed in the article is my home church for the 8 or 9 years. I love it. Some would say, it's big enough, why build, why become a 'mega-church'. I appreciate, however, Grace's philosophy of growth. They don't want to be a mega-church. As it is, people get lost and overwhelmed in the crowd. Most churches, when they build a new sanctuary, double the size, or more, in hopes of being able to fill it. Grace, on the other hand, chose to build a new sanctuary about 50% bigger than the current one, but set up differently such that everyone feels closer to the front of the church. With the new sanctuary, the old auditorium will be split into 2 auditoriums for the jr. and sr. high groups. Larger, more appropriate worship rooms are being built for the kids classes too.
The kids' rooms were actually first priority, because they're the ones most hurting for space. It's really heartbreaking to have to turn parents (especially first-time visitors) away and not allowing them to drop their kids at Sunday School because they're full- by law, a certain student-teacher ratio has to be maintained, and there's a limit on the number of kids per room for different ages, 30ish for 5-year-olds, 8 for infants. And, believe me, the rooms at Grace regularly fill up. Once we make room for more kids, we gotta make room for more parents, which is where the new sanctuary comes in. Once that's built, that will create space elsewhere in the church to have more (rather than larger) services. A 1600-person modern worship service isn't for everyone. Smaller, more intimate services like Sojourn and Centro Cristiano de Celebracion will now have a more permanent place to meet. More people will be reached because the variety of service styles will speak into where they're at and how they meet God.
I went on longer than I meant to. Read more about the Grace Imagine initiative here.
Children of slain pregnant mother found dead
This is obviously a tragic story, but there's one thing that confuses me. From the article:
The children were last seen Monday with family friend Tiffany Hall, 24, now charged with first-degree murder in the death of their mother, who is believed to have been slain days before her children disappeared.
Hall is also charged with intentional homicide of an unborn child, prosecutor Robert Haida said.
If "intentional homicide of an unborn child" is a crime, shouldn't, logically, abortion be too? What's he legal difference, I wonder? The mother's wishes?
That's all for now. I'm off to showering and cooking, and perhaps a Sunday afternoon nap. We might hit the Carmel International Arts Festival later as well.
1 comment:
...and to follow your second point, I want to say: if it's the mother's choice that makes the difference between legal abortion and murder, then why is it murder if a mother kills her baby? What about the terminally ill wanting to end their lives?
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