Vineyard Church to host unity service
Counting your blessings this Thanksgiving season?
Vineyard Church of Elgin, still thankful for its new church home purchased just this past spring, plays host to this year's unity Thanksgiving service sponsored by the Elgin Pastors' Prayer Group on Sunday, Nov. 15.
At least 10 city churches have committed to come together for the 6 p.m. event. Pastor Bob Whitt of Family Life Church will give the message, and Josh Thomas from Vineyard will lead the worship time.
Vineyard Pastor Tom Severson is collecting stories for the service that evidence God's work in Elgin.
"I'm asking the pastors to find me a testimony about provision or addiction (recovery) or protection or spiritual growth or God's blessings, where they've seen God move in the lives of people in their congregations," Severson said. "We want to take those in a mini-testimony format and turn around and celebrate God together and thank him for those blessings."
Pastors' Prayer Group is a coalition of the leaders of several evangelical churches who meet monthly for prayer. Not only is there power in prayer, Severson said, but also there is power in unity. He likens the interdenominational brotherhood to "one church in Elgin meeting in many locations."
The pastors sometimes invite community leaders into their meetings to hear what their needs and concerns are and pray for God's blessing over them.
"Jesus' prayer for his disciples was, 'Father, make them one, that the world may know that you sent your son,'" Severson said. "I don't think anything glorifies God more than his children loving each other and lifting up his name together.
"Just like the parents of a family are really honored when the kids love each other and respect their parents, so the Lord is highly lifted up when we put aside our minor differences to focus on our major agreements: to love God, to love his people and to reach our world with Christ's love."
Other participating churches include Community Baptist Church, Elgin Bible Church, Evangelical Covenant Church of Elgin, Grace Evangelical Church, Highland Christian Fellowship, New Covenant Fellowship, Redeemer Free Methodist Church and St. Hugh of Lincoln Episcopal Church, as well as a local ministry known as Elgin House of Prayer.
But you don't have to attend one of these in order to attend the Thanksgiving service, and other congregations can still formally sign on by calling Severson at (847) 697-8001. Child care will be provided, and refreshments follow the 90-minute event.
Vineyard's new sanctuary, formerly the home of St. Paul's United Church of Christ, is located at 220 Division St. Having previously worshiped in a downtown banquet hall, Vineyard had long been looking for a new building and is grateful for the provision.
Severson said his congregation has fully participated in the unity Thanksgiving service for a number of years, but this is the first time for hosting.
"I think they were waiting for us to have a respectable address," he quipped.
Religious art: The name of Warner Sallman may not be familiar to you, but I bet you've seen his work.
His 1941 oil painting titled "The Head of Christ" has been reproduced more than a billion times, according to the Web site sallmanart.org. Equally iconic are "Christ at Heart's Door," "Christ in Gethsemane" and "The Lord is My Shepherd," a depiction of Jesus tending sheep in a quiet valley.
You can learn more about the works of Warner Sallman when the Rev. LeRoy Carlson brings a PowerPoint presentation to Evangelical Covenant Church of Elgin, 1565 Larkin Ave., on Friday, Nov. 13.
As founder and president of The Warner E. Sallman Art Collection, Carlson travels far and wide to tell stories of the artist's life and 40 or more of his popular works of art. One of Carlson's stops a few years ago was Evangelical Covenant, where "we learned a lot about this important artist that goes even deeper than his inspiring paintings," said Pastor Jonathan Wilson.
Sallman himself used to give devotional messages at churches, and as he spoke he sketched a representation of Christ with chalk.
"We are the proud owner of one of these chalk talk portraits," Wilson said. A Chicagoan, Sallman visited the Elgin church in the late 1950s or early '60s and died in 1968.
The Nov. 13 program, "The Master Painter," begins at 7 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
Anniversary party: Happy 29th anniversary to Kane County Baptist Church!
The South Elgin congregation will celebrate another year this Sunday, Nov. 8, with some good old-fashioned Southern Gospel music. A men's quartet, "Committed," will be in from Indiana to sing at 10 a.m. Sunday School and worship services at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
A potluck dinner will be sandwiched between services. The public is welcome to enjoy any or all of the festivities at the church, located at 260 E. Spring Ave.
"In the Spirit" covers churches and synagogues in the Fox Valley area; contact cmchojnacki@yahoo.com to submit information or ideas for upcoming columns. Please submit upcoming event information in the previous calendar month.