If you really want to confuse your children during Saturday morning cartoons, tell them to get ready for church. First they'll be confused (Wait! What day is it?), then they'll argue. (But, MOM, it's Saturday!), and finally after you've reminded them that their friends will be there, they'll reluctantly concede (Fine! But I'm not wearing a dress!). This is exactly what happened at our house a couple Saturday's ago when I told the girls we were going to go to the Church of God (Seventh day) in Fairview, Oklahoma.
When I finally got them on board, and after the husband had to back out at the last minute because of calls from work, we made our way to this tiny little church on the corner of 7th and Ash. The building is so unobtrusive that even though we've driven past it a million times, my girls claimed never to have noticed it's existence. In fact, as we walked in to join the less than dozen faithful members in attendance, we couldn't help but wonder if perhaps the rest of the community had forgotten it's existence as well. (Which, with it's long and rich history of consistence faithfulness to faith would be an absolute shame.)
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| Youngest child kept herself busy (for the most part) taking apart and putting away this puzzle. (And spilling it with a loud crash onto the floor during the sermon. Sorry about that!) |
The Fairview Church of God (Seventh Day) was started way back in 1894 and is one of the oldest continually worshiping churches of this denomination in the United States. The denomination itself only started in mid-1800's with the General Conference being incorporate Missouri in 1899, 5 years after the little church in Fairview began. The denomination has some very specific beliefs about maintaining a Saturday Sabbath (which Jews and early Christians maintained until the 4th Century A.D. when the Roman emperor Constantine declared it such in order to please recent pagan converts who were used to worshiping their sun god on that day.) , as well as, adhering to laws written in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 regarding clean and unclean animals, and denying the celebration of Christmas and Easter. In addition, they continue to observe many of the feast days of the Jewish faith and take Holy Communion only during the Passover Feast, and they have been compared in doctrine to Messianic Jews. However, for the most part the beliefs of this congregation closely mirror those of most protestant denominations. They believe in the Holy Trinity, in salvation through the grace of God through Jesus Christ, and in the Bible as the divine Word of God.
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| The faithful few in fellowship! |
Therefore, as Pastor Tytus Burrell shared the word of God with this fellowship of believers and hymns were sung in worship to the Lord, we could have been in any church on a Sunday morning learning about God's word and singing praises to our King. It was a privilege to be able to share this experience in this particular church, with these particular believers, on this particular Saturday morning, and I as thought of Jesus worshiping on the Sabbath so many years ago, I felt privileged to share this day with him as well. And I couldn't help but feel admiration for a congregation of believers that have held on to their faith generation after generation despite a world which must constantly make it difficult to do so.
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| Fellowship Hall. |
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| Foyer |
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