Yesterday, the Griffin and Thomaston Seventh-Day Adventist churches came together for worship. Thomaston hosted. Why did we worship together at Thomaston? Because the Griffin building got wounded sometime during the past week. The roof must have sprung some leaks… We only discovered the damage late Friday, which made the church building somewhat unsafe for worship the next morning, which was the Sabbath of April 1, 2023. This year there have been frequent onslaughts of violent storms which have brought fierce winds, pounding rain and hail, yes and even tornadoes (January 12 they went through the heart of a Griffin). Must be some serious leakage in our roof structure to cause this:
Yet, we could have been unprepared. We could have showed up Sabbath morning for worship and then discovered it. But God does in fact send His angels to watch out for us troubled humans. You see, the First Elder showed up on Friday (which he usually does not do) because he wanted to prepare to preach the next day, since I would not be there. I was scheduled to preach at the Thomaston Church. It was Mort who discovered the damage. He called me to come over and check it out. Then we counseled together along with Missy, the church Treasurer. She was already there working in her office, but had not seen the damage to the sanctuary room. So, we decided it was not a safe situation for bringing people together for worship. My ministerial director Richard concurred by phone.
What should we do about worship scheduled for the next day? Well, we have a sister church in the city of Thomaston. Being a district pastor, I serve both churches. So we made the appropriate calls, texts and emails with the help of Judi, our church clerk. I knew not everyone would make the drive due to the extra 23 mile distance to Thomaston; however, we decided to join the Thomaston congregation and worship together with them, in their building. Which building recently received a new roof! And we are thankful.
But, with the Griffin building closed, how would the livestream be able to go out to those members who watch online? Fortunately, I own two Mevo cameras which worked out well for me to handle the livestream and preach my sermon. Without those Mevo’s I could not have live-streamed the service from Thomaston. And I used Griffin’s YouTube channel to stream the service.
Below is the link to the worship service. My sermon topic is from the “Hebrew Shema,” Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!” And also from the first angel’s message of Revelation 14:6, “Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the EVERLASTING GOSPEL to preach to those who dwell on the earth…”
Last Day's Grace 