Today was slated to be our busiest day, so we were up and out the door early. Our first stop was Rock Harbor. I instantly felt a connection to environment (both aesthetics and the energy) that I did not feel at Saddleback. While I didn't get to check our their kids space, I did enjoy the worship service - excellent, loud music, a thought-provoking guest speaker, and best of all, no responsibility, except to listen to the Spirit.
I had a few conversations with regular attenders. Thinking about the question I'd asked at Saddleback yesterday, I posed a similar question to the gal behind the Info Desk - "What is it that draws you to Rock Harbor?" She told me that she sensed the Spirit of God at this church unlike any other. This got me pondering a different post for a different day - is sensing God's spirit in a church necessary for those in the church? Is it possible that two spirit-led believers could be in the same church, and one could sense the spirit, while the other does not?
After Rock Harbor, we hauled over to Mariners Church in Newport. The environment was akin to Saddleback - large church, and it felt like it. Their children's ministry building has been designed with the "mariner" theme in mind. We spent the morning wandering through the kids building (that we were allowed to do so surprised me), and observing various parts of their program. Again, I was encouraged: we're not missing anything huge or doing anything wrong. Their program is similar to ours. Major differences seemed limited to the size of the building and the number of children - both of which are appropriate for the scale at which they do ministry.
We stopped at Fashion Island, a mall in Newport Beach, for lunch, where it seems women push their dogs in strollers and walk their children on leashes. Found the world's cutest pet store - "muttropolis" - and bought a treat for Memphis.
We had a bit at the hotel to relax before heading off to Newport Church, a Hillsong churchplant at a local high school. Quite a few things made me furrow my brow, but knowing that I was exhausted, I won't go into detail (my attitude is often affected by my exhaustion level) and there wasn't much in terms of children's ministry so we didn't bother touring.
After the last church service, we picked up my mom at the hotel, who has flown in to spend tomorrow with us, then headed to dinner. She fit right in, and the group was so kind to include her. After dinner, we had one more late night swim (during which the security guard came in and told us to keep it down - pointing at me specifically, for laughing too loudly), and I was all too glad to go to bed by the time 12:30 rolled around.
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