Church, Potluck and Talent Show

We got up leisurely on Sunday, since their church starts at 11:30!!  Eric and Paula are part of the congregation at Third Way in St. Paul.

http://www.thirdwaychurch.org/

They meet in the library at Hamline Methodist Church.  They had been hosting a conference for the weekend, with about 20 or so people from other intentional communities around the country.  So their meeting was a bit more crowded than normal.  This was my third time to visit.  It is a super friendly and comfortable congregation.  Very young, and urban/hipster.  I don't know if that is how they would describe themselves, but I mean in it the very most complimentary way!!

After the service, there was a potluck....Yay!!!!  There was really good food.  I particularly loved a salad that had feta cheese crumbles and poppy seed dressing and lots of other yummy stuff.  After we ate, they had prepared a "talent" show.  Pretty funny.  For instance, one couple --the wife is the daughter of Greg Boyd :) -- did a handstand contest.  One of the younger girls, Zola, who is in 6th grade and a big fan of 1D, was joined by 2 other 20-something girls, and they lip-synced and danced to HoeDown ThrowDown.  It was really cute.

During this whole time, incidentally, Avery was WIDE awake, and very happy and friendly.  However, a nap would have probably been a good thing.  So then we went home, about 3pm, and even then Avery didn't sleep.  We played some more Timeline, and Avery finally fell asleep right about when we were about to go back to church.  Eric and Paula's small group were in charge of fixing the dinner for the participants of the conference.  So Eric and I went to help Karna (Anna Pitrone's cousin, crazy, huh?).

We ate with them, and it was very enjoyable.  Very interesting people.  There was a man there who really reminded all of us of my dad.  He told a story about growing green beans and reminded Eric of picking beans in Grandpa's garden :)  He wrote a book:

The Intentional Christian Community Handbook: For Idealists, Hypocrites, and Wannabe Disciples of Jesus 

David Janzen graduated from Bethel College and studied at Harvard Divinity School. In 1971, he and his wife helped found New Creation Fellowship, a Christian intentional community in Newton KS. In 1984, they moved to Reba Place Fellowship in Evanston IL, where David now runs an affordable housing ministry.

Cleaned up, went home, played more games, went to bed.