I went to church today. Saturday. It was a multi-site service. I arrived for the “9 am service” at the FV warehouse where there were about 10 of us loading a U-Haul to help move furniture to the new Next Door storefront. Another one of us was attending to a malfunctioning air conditioning unit and a couple others were helping with the move while also sticking around to do bike repair for Rolling Horse. A bit later, a few others joined for a 10:30 service at Next Door helping to unload the truck,lay down some baseboard, install ceiling tiles and put away boxes. The cool thing about these two morning services is that they were attended by a couple of guys who happily joined in though they might never show up at our Sunday service.
On my way back to FV in the early afternoon I stopped in to see Carmen and Alvaro. It was moving day for them too as they just bought a little condo on Walkers Line – an exciting day considering they’ve moved 3 times since arriving to Canada as refugees almost 10 years ago!  What I discovered is that their place was home to another Saturday morning service – if you are keeping count that’s 3 services at 3 locations, aren’t we innovative 🙂 This service was attended by Denice and Daniel (fellow Colombians) who were helping with the move along with Kai, Tohma and Rian who apparently did most of the heavy lifting!
Making my way back to FV I found that there wee a couple of afternoon services going on – both quite different from each other and different from the morning services. (That makes five services now – not only multi-site but diverse in form!) One afternoon service I poked my head in on was taking place in the youth room as Kayla shared with a group of friends and family about God’s call to go serve Him in Malawi. Good stuff! It looked like the service also included some tasty food, a silent auction and some dancing to come – I didn’t stay for that part! The other afternoon service was upstairs where some parents and youth leaders got together put on an event for our Jr Youth to connect and have fun with one another- always important.
The cool thing about attending this Saturday’s services is that it make me excited to go to church on Sunday. That’s right, like lots of you I’ll be at church twice this weekend. Today, Saturday, it was about joining with others to serve the God who calls us to good deeds. On Sunday it will be about gathering with these same servant friends, brothers and sisters to worship the God who binds us together.