What a great time at Southwest this past Sunday. For those that want to hear the sermon, it is here. It was about Heaven. Just to let you know, the first half is pretty theological. The second half is more of the life application part.

In many ways, I appreciated that a big deal was not made about our presence. I didn’t feel like there were repeated mentions of the Omaha Church of Christ in attendance. It didn’t seem like there was a “Look at them, can you believe they are actually here” feeling in the room. There was a bit of a cramped feeling, though. The place was filled to capacity.

Folks were friendly and asked if I was from Omaha (the CoC, not the city). I met quite a few folks. I especially enjoyed joking a bit with one of the elders. I miss being in a church with elders sometimes. This energetic older gentleman reminds me of other elders I respect all over the US and other parts of the world. By old church has elders now and I miss one of them terribly. He called me when my friend Neil passed away. He was a great comfort.

In any case, I was very curious about my wife’s impressions. She was raised in an atheist household. Her only experience with Christianity is the ICoC. This is the first non-ICoC service she has attended to my knowledge. I was encouraged to find that she completely enjoyed the communion message. (I was also glad because Brother Bear was so into his apricots that I hada hard time hearing the brother speaking.)

After service, we all ate together. At first, most of us tended to sit with people we knew from our own congregation. However, it wasn’t long before people were moving around. We sat with a Chinese couple. Indi and his family enjoyed Dancing Bear, who really took a shine to one man whose name I forget.

I saw some of our deacons talking to Southwest’s youth minister. They were talking about holding more events together. I saw our minister talking to lots of other folks, including one of the elders. Jim, their minister, milled about the room as well.

We soon discovered that three La Leche groups meet at Southwest. One of the leaders, whom my wife had not previously met, came over to our table. She noted that my wife was wearing Dancing Bear in a wrap and talked about some things that we belived in common about parenting, nursing, and the like. It felt good to talk to an older Christian about parenting that shared some of our beliefs. My wife and I can feel like a minority sometimes.

I met a young man aspiring to be a model. We talked about Roma, Italy. I met a Native American woman and her husband. I saw a very diverse group of folks generationally and ethnicly. I must confess that I thought they would be overwhelmingly white like the church I attend, but I was happy to be wrong.

Others had a good time. My wife and I were among the last to leave. The Southwest folks insisted that we not help with cleanup and all of us felt served and loved. As I was leaving a gentleman told me that he was glad we visited. He asked where we met and said that he looked forward to visiting us.

I can’t wait.