Sweet Home Alabama

I went "home" to Dothan this weekend and had a wonderfully refreshing weekend. I crammed a lot of great things into one day and one night.....

I went to see my pastor, Paul Estes. I met with him Saturday for the quarterly ministry training that I'm blessed to be a part of, then afterwards he and his beautiful wife Anita prayed over Isaac, dedicating him to the Lord.

Later that day I placed my fourth infant son into the loving arms of my grandmother, "Mama Fran". Isaac was tired but he mustered up enough energy to smile and laugh with her. It made her day.

I stayed the night with my friends Jason and Laura. Crazy Jay has realized that thirtysomething is not too early to start smoking a pipe!

Sunday morning I visited an interesting church in Dothan. It's a spirit-filled (they believe in the gifts and the baptism of the Holy Spirit), contemporary, Methodist church. It was awesome. It was the best of both worlds; it had a friendly, welcoming environment but also a solid spiritual foundation. It's been a long time since I've been in a church that was this well balanced. My recent church experiences have either been seeker friendly churches, which were great with outreach but lacked depth and discipline, or traditional churches, which had great teaching but lacked passion and life. So to see this church so balanced and healthy in both areas really encouraged me. My heart has become very cynical and I needed this. The children were welcomed, well cared for, and safe. The sanctuary was beautiful and had big huge picture windows with automatic shades that were controlled to create atmosphere in the service. Breakfast was available at tables throughout the back of the sanctuary. The worship was contemporary and passionate. They sang "Mighty To Save", my favorite worship song since having Isaac. The altars were open and people were encouraged to worship. The pastor talked about being filled with the Spirit, tithing, fasting, and prayer. The sermon was on finances, a very relevant topic, but the Word was preached throughout the message. Peace reigned in the house. I was blessed.