FredMcKinnon.Com

Hey everyone,

So today our church celebrated it’s 2nd of 3 “Summer Baptism” sessions. We celebrate two main sacraments at SSCC corporately – baptism and communion.

Today’s baptism was at a wonderful house … er … estate at the end of East Beach. For those of you who know St. Simons Island, GA … you are familiar with East Beach and Gould’s Inlet. At low tide, it is a river flowing into the ocean far away, with what seems like hundreds of yards of beach. At high tide, the beach and river vanish into a churning mixture of foam, waves, and currents.

Joy and I were just down there on our “date” Friday night and were admiring this estate. It’s beautiful and perfectly nestled on the tip of East Beach, overlooking the inlet and Sea Island. Upon climbing the stairs to the porch and terrace area, we found everyone gathered around a small pool with one of those “infinity edges” making the pool seem as if it cascaded off into the ocean. It was glorious, and a beautiful backdrop to share in the sacrament and celebration of those being baptized. Those of you who may follow me on Twitter got a glimpse of it via TwicPic below. My, God has blessed us to live in a gorgeous place. (and sorry Mandy and Drew, if you are reading, don’t want to make you homesick!)

Oh yeah … and I finished it … “The Shack“. In record time. I devoured this book (by my standards). I’ve had some good private replies from a few of you about your concerns about the “theology” in the book … concerns that are well taken. However, I sincerely believe that if you can approach this book for what it is … fiction … and not try to form (or clarify) theology with it, it’s a must-read.

Even on the “theology” side, there were only a couple of issues that I found. If I were reading the book as a doctrinal supplement, I’d speak to it … but I gained so much from reading this book and much of the other things covered in it. Seldom have I ever read anything (or seen anything for that matter) which caused the tears to flow down my cheeks so frequently. In the “Afterward” they mention that movie producers are already talking about making a movie … and oh, I’d buy the first ticket, hands down.

I wish so badly I could discuss a few of the points in the book that fulfilled me so much, that made my eyes overflow with ears, my heart pound out of my chest, or my insides swell with pride … but I’d rather not ruin it for those who still haven’t read the book.

Well, it’s 10:45 PM EST Sunday evening, July 13 … today was a great day in worship, and I hope to recap that with a Worship Confessional in the AM, but we’ll see.

Good night. How was your weekend?