A recap of Sunday is in order. We went to worship once more at the American Baptist church in Orland. Afterwards, we talked and decided that it isn’t going to be home for us. They don’t have much in the way of a Sunday school for adults and that is very important. That was one of the problems with the EV Free church as well. We are thinking of going to the Evangelical Lutheran church next Sunday. There are still a Federated church and a Community church to visit in Orland before we have to go further (to Chico) in our search for a church home. Interesting sidebar…we spent some time researching the local Lutheran church, using Google to find the material, and discovered an immense amount of data, including the financial reports for the last 10 years, the ethnic makeup of the congregation, membership numbers, mission statements, etc, etc. I wonder if churches are beginning to understand what retailers already know? An increasing number of people use the internet for just this kind of research. Apparently the Lutheran church understands this or the data wouldn’t have been there.
There is a negative to knowing all of this data and that is...it's just data! It has nothing to do with the people you will meet and how you will relate to them as brothers and sisters in Christ. We noted from the data that the Lutheran church is pretty much "plain vanilla" in its membership. And that is a common failing in this small town.
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