Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Our Decision to Become Part of a Family Integrated Church Part 4

Here are some of the activities that we participate in at our church:  biweekly fellowship meals, picnics at parks or at a local family's home, building and setting off rockets, father-son activities, ladies' teas, sponsoring a child through Compassion International, collecting for the local pregnancy center, helping by donating to missionaries in Africa, Ukraine and Ireland, as well as the MERF organization.  We had a special service and small re-enactment of the sinking of the Titanic last year for 100th anniversary, where several of our men spoke about what it means to be a man and to protect the women and children, and this included a special dinner.  Our men meet together one Sunday afternoon a month to share and to encourage one another and lift one another up in prayer, and our ladies meet once a month to encourage one another as well.

We've also played softball, Ultimate Frisbee, Airsoft (the boys and men), soccer, basketball, had game nights, mystery dinners, and movie nights to watch things like "Captivated".  We have had guest speakers -- several missionaries, as well as Terri Roberts.  We also have a special tradition each Easter -- we meet at a pond at a nearby park and read some scripture, sing a hymn or two, and pray.  Then we return the the church building and have breakfast together before Sunday school and church.  The meeting at the pond is because when the pastor and elders decided to begin this church, they had met at that pond early one morning to pray about it.  During their prayer time, they also witnessed the sun rise over the pond and that is how they decided to call our church "Sonrise Christian Fellowship".

In Sunday school, we also went through the Truth Project.

Our entire family has grown by leaps and bounds in our spiritual walks since we've been attending this church.  We are all a part of the church.  Many of the teens in the church participate in services by using their musical talents.  Our oldest son taught a short, 3-part, Sunday school lesson.

During the almost six years that we have been a part of this church, it has grown, slowly at first, but quite quickly more recently.  We now average about 60 people each Sunday.

We have many families come to us because they found us through our website, and they were seeking a family integrated church because they understand the value of such a church.  We now have families who drive and hour to attend our church, so we are no longer the ones traveling from the farthest distance.

We are blessed to be a part of this church, where we even get to personally know our pastors, as they participate in many of the fellowship meals and activities as well.

Our oldest son, turned 18 this week and we invited one of the church families and our pastor to join us for dinner to celebrate, and we had a lovely evening together.

You can find our church, Sonrise Christian Fellowship in Quarryville, PA.  Check out our website at:  http://sonrisechristianfellowship.org/    If you are close enough or don't mind a drive, join us.  If a family integrated church is what you're looking for, we'd love to have you with us.

1 comment:

  1. Amen!!! I wish we would have found our family intergrated church sooner. We had nothing but problems in our youth groups. It is awesome to see the how different the youth are.

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