Well, it looks like the coffee shop is just about the place to meet people here in town. I was sitting out front there Tuesday afternoon, when who should walk by but my old high school geometry teacher, Mr. Payne! I asked about him when I went back to the school for a visit a couple of weeks ago, but they told me he had long since gone on to greener pastures in computers, etc. I enjoyed him; his geometry class was a memorable experience for me. (I was the only freshman in the class; until I went into that classroom, I hadn’t realized that upperclassmen and freshmen were sometimes in the same classes together!) I was glad to see he was doing well.

This morning, I went to have coffee with the pastors at the church I’ve just started attending. We met in the coffee shop and started discussing things. As we were talking, who should come up to the table but Clint Sanders! Clint was a friend of mine in high school – well, really, we were in school together from preschool on up. He was salutatorian when he graduated and lettered in something like 11 sports. On top of that, he was a really nice guy who helped out with FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes). He’s working here in town at Jerry White’s pharmacy (which I was glad to hear; when he left high school his goal was to become a pharmacist). His wife, Rachel (his high-school sweetheart), is working as a CPA.

Anyway, I was talking to the pastor and the assistant pastor of Grace Covenant Fellowship, the only non-denominational church I know of around here. I got to talk with them and hear their vision for the church and the community, and what things they felt called to as a church, and ask any questions I might have. They told me lots of funny stuff – like, when they started the church, a local Assembly of God pastor prophesied over them that small groups wouldn’t work because of the culture around here. They told him, “Well, we feel called to start a Biblical culture!” and proceeded to reorganize their church around a small-group structure! They now have a vibrant small-group ministry that is the heart of the church’s life.

I went to my first small group last night, and it was great. They uniformly seemed intelligent, sincere, and enthusiastic about going deeper with God, even though there were some (significant) differences of opinion. It was also good to hang around with people post-college but pre-middle-age, since that’s not a large demographic in this area. At any rate, when the pastors talked about their small-group ministry, I had just experienced one of the said small groups the night before.

The pastors also told me something that startled and excited me. They have a weekly prayer meeting with the pastors of Grace Baptist, Ebenezer Baptist, Glad Tidings Assembly of God, and First Alliance – which are all pretty major churches in this area. I mean, this isn’t a bunch of double-digit member churches getting together to encourage each other on their low membership. This is something significant that I can’t remember happening previously in this town – church splits tend to cause deep rifts in the community, and, while individual members may be friends, churches seldom join for longer than it takes to bring in an outside evangelist for a revival meeting.

“They say Aslan is on the move – perhaps has already landed!”