17 Sep 07 Preaching V (More of the college years)

It was during my freshman year that I, along with my roommate, attended a Wednesday night church service at the invitation of some friends.  The 5th and Grape Church of Christ was having a singing night and they invited anyone who wanted to come up and lead a song to do so.  My roommate and I had met at the Firm Foundation School of Church Music so we naturally accepted the invitation and each led a song.  We received the weekly bulleting from this church a few days later and discovered that by leading a song we had "placed membership" which was news to us.  I guess we didn’t read the fine print.

We would have ended up there anyway because we wanted to be part of an outreach team that was based out of this church.  Led by Dr. F.M. Churchill, the outreach team would travel all over Texas conducting weekend youth rallies and youth programs.  On Saturday, or Sunday afternoon as the schedule dictated, we would perform skits and other dramatic presentations, a group would sing, and someone would speak.  On Sunday morning the service would be led by the college age guys. 

When my time in Robert Lee came to end I joined this group and had the privilege of traveling all over the state of Texas and speaking / preaching for a lot of churches.  Some of the more interesting town names included:  Kermit, Fluvanna, Spur, Battle Ground, and Old Glory.

I stayed in this group and consider it a defining event in my college experience my entire time at ACU.  We always have some new people join each year but we had a core group that stayed together the entire time.  The experience was great.  Dr. Churchill would provide direction and would take charge of scheduling and travel arrangements and we would take care of everything else.  Deciding on the skits to be done, the program format, who would speak, who would lead singing, who would preach and so on.

Around the end of my sophmore year Dr. Churchill moved the outreach group from 5th and Grape (also known as 5th and Gripe) to the16th and Vine church (what is it with these church names?) and we hardly seemed to miss a beat.  Between the outreach group, the bible department at ACU, and word of mouth I was busy preaching in quite a few places.  Whenever possible, I’d always have a car full of people and we’d head out for some memorable experiences.

Like the church that had 6 people - 5 of whom were women.  Our posse double attendance that morning.  The one man in attendance didn’t want to do anything publicly so my roommate led the singing, prayed and served the Lord’s supper, while I preached, prayed, and served the Lord’s Supper.  The church ladies were very sweet and hospitable.  After the service the leading lady came up to me and said something like "now you all go on down to the gas and sip, fill up your car and eat lunch have them put it on (and she gave her name) ’s tab.  Cuisine at the gas and sip consisted of fried chicken and potato wedges.  Yes, it’s true!  I once got paid in chicken.

One Sunday, I think it was in Coleman, Texas our posse arrived at the church I was supposed to preach after some struggles with the map and difficulties finding the place.  Every church in town seemed to be a nondescript red-brick building.  We found the street and found the church on the corner and started to head in with the other members right before service was getting ready to start.  A person, who now I believe was probably the preacher, met us at the door and welcomed the sight of college age students coming to church.  I introduced myself and said, "I’m here to preach this morning."  I didn’t catch it at the time but the look on his face was one of extreme confusion.  We made our way inside, picked up a bulletin that I scanned for the order of service (to see if the sermon was before or after communion) sat down in a pew and looked up.  There in the front of the auditorium was a massive pipe organ.  We all looked at each other and it we all knew - we were in the wrong church.  As the service began to start we quickly got up, shuffled out the back and made a run for the car.  It turns out the church we were supposed to be at was on the other corner of the street.  I’ve always wondered what happened when we exited and what happened with the person whom I informed I was there to preach.