Well, Friday and Saturday was the Annual meeting of the Pittsburgh Area of the ABCOPAD (American Baptist Churches of Pennsylvania and Delaware). They met in the North Hills Baptist Church on Friday night with a dinner sponsored by our pension board, and then on Saturday at the Franklin Park Baptist Church. Dr. Manfred Brauch (former president of Eastern Bpatist Theological Seminary) spoke briefly on Friday night and then four times (75 minutes each time) on the topic of The Abuse of Scripture and It's Consequences.
Here's photo of Dr. Brauch...
The Friday night dinner was a great time to re-connect with old friends we'd known from fifteen years ago when we served churches here in the Pittsburgh area. Nate Wiliams brought me up to date on things happening in the PBA churches from his perspective as former interim Area Minister. It was good to see Gary Denning again from FBC of Pittsburgh and others we hadn't seen in a long time. I spoke with several pastors about their churches and how they'd changed over the years. It was disheartening to hear of the way things are now as compared to how they were when I left. Much has gone down hill. As a result of this downward spiral, the Pittsburgh Region had to merge with the Pennsylvania Region. Now Pittsburgh is just a part of the larger ABCOPAD region. It was nice to meet the executive minister of the region, Rev. Frank Fischcorn and other area clergy. Also, re-connecting with Denise at the PBA office was nice. She's doing her best to keep me preaching in area PBA churches. (Next week at Aliquippa.)
Dee went with me on Friday night to the dinner, but had to work on Saturday for the store's open house. Saturday night we had a nice dinner at the Longhorn Steak House. Their burgers and chopped steaks are just the right size for us. I'm still looking for a GPS navigation unit for the car. If you have one you like, let me know the model and what you like about it. I think the wide screen ones would be best for my eyes...
It was a busy weekend, but it was great seeing lots of old friends. We also saw our old neighbor from Blackridge at Barnes and Nobel Bookstore on Friday afternoon. Chris S. lived next to us for several years on Orlando Place. We had no idea he moved to the Wexford area with his family. I recognized him, and he me right away. I'd forgotten his name, but he seemed to remember mind. Looks pretty much the same after 13 years. We're hoping to get together with him and Linda sometime in the near future. What a nice surprise!
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