Great Outdoors

Originally scheduled for June 7

Have you ever taken communion in an outdoor setting?  It's a bit curious, but even in a church which was adjacent to a large park, your author has never seen such a thing.  Why is that?

• One obvious reason is the weather.  Unless you attend Death Valley First Fundamentalist Church, you can get rained out. Communion is by design shared closely.
• Your church building was designed to allow easy service of communion.  The park across the street is not.  Everyone will be following new instrctions.  "New instrucions" sometimes means "lost."
• It almost certainly will take more time to do it outdooors - and come with more distractions.

Noise!  Did you hear the preacher over the roar of the motorcycle club's picnic

One other aspect is this:  inside the building we have long held the custom of rspecting each others' private meditations.  Self-examation alone requires this, if nothing else.  We move quietly, within our own solitude.  Let me encourage you today to do just that;  let your neighbor keep his thoughts his own just as you do your own.  Then partake in the presence of Christ.