Surprise! It's a Snowy Sunday

We woke up this morning to thick, white blanket of snow and heavy snow showers and quickly discovered that the entire Pikes Peak region had been 'blessed (?)' with a surprise snow storm that dumped between 1 1/2 - 3 inches of snow in an hour. Roads were, of course, a mess and reporters were blathering on about accident alerts and defensive driving. Meanwhile, I was prepared to enjoy the show with a mug of hot cocoa and warm sheets that were calling my name. After all our daughter is still complaining of a sore throat from this week's adventure with a penny and the mountain pass was sure to be treacherous. My husband, however, was bound and determined to attend church this morning.

You see, we're part of a church start in Woodland Park - North Peak Community Center - and we teach Sunday School for the 3-7 year olds. And this was a big week. This was the first Sunday where we'll begin meeting regularly every Sunday. Still, I reasoned that it'd be best to do church at home today given the road conditions and Kathryn's lingering sore throat. She shouldn't be out in the weather and I had serious concerns about the passability of the highway up the mountain. Jackson, however, insisted on going - after all, he reasoned, we have 4WD capabilities on our Xterra.

It all brought about a rather fascinating discussion on how we define church and what our heart is towards ministry. I'm afraid that I fall into a bit of a post-modern mindset in this regard in that I lean more towards a first-century definition of the church - where church members met in each other's houses and knew the intimate details of one another's lives. Today's church tends to be much too corporate for my tastes, offering up spiritual cardboard and pretending its steak.

Wouldn't you far rather minister to the people in your life, both Christian and non-Christian, in a personal, intimate way than simply inviting them to a corporate worship service that more closely resembles a concert? I truly do believe it to be far more effective. I'm much more at ease ministering to someone by doing their laundry while they're ill or bringing them a meal after they've had surgery than by singing in front of people, playing some instrument (I don't) or reading a lesson out of a Sunday School curriculum. And truthfully, which do you remember more - someone helping you out when you really needed it or last month's sermon?