Sunday, February 5, was a day New Englanders enjoyed! Yes, the Patriots made a miracle comeback to win Super Bowl LI. However, the day started off pretty special too as the Ocean State Church of Christ hosted an amazing neighbor day.

At 10:30 AM, disciples and their friends flooded into the large auditorium of Clarke Hall on the Rhode Island College campus. Over 100 came in and witnessed a very special service. First, our congregations’ band joined in for a powerful beginning with songs like “Open the Eyes of My Heart”, “10,000 Reasons” and “How Great is Our God”. Brown disciples Brennan Sciascia and Tolu Sogade welcomed the crowd and made some important announcements.

Then a group of eight thespians from our church put on a mini-play. The skit, called “O Come Let Us Adore Him,” featured people worshiping God in a host of ways. Our hearts were exposed as we watched some with low self esteem, others with esteem that was too high and singers of all sorts strut or sulk their way through a pretend worship experience. Asia Stevens, the director and narrator, drove home the penetrating message that it must be God we adore and not ourselves. Cast members included Jiayin Sperry, Bill Brown, Ally Brown, Diana Wick, Daniel Gifford, Jenny Contreras and Deisy Morales.

Following the fellowship break, we heard another lesson from our series on David’s Mighty Men. This study was from the life of Benaiah, who is the theme character from our “Chase the Lion” title (II Samuel 23:20-23). From him we learned to be valiant fighters and that we can’t finish what we don’t start. But the highlight of the day was to come at our service’s conclusion. Following our dismissal song, Bob and Christen Sherman shared about their love for their daughter Sarah. She then answered two important questions and was baptized into Christ! What a joy to see one of our teenagers, Sarah, make this huge step. She had studied the Bible for about nine hours the day before because she so much wanted to be urgent about her decision to follow God.

Later in the evening, Super Bowl parties were hosted in various locations. It was a Super Sunday in many ways. But we all believe that the spiritual stuff even outweighs what happened in football.