West Cocoa Chat

We had one of those special weekends at Central this past weekend. It started with the arrival of Olan and Barbara Hicks on Saturday. For almost 30 years they have been literally traveling coast to coast helping people deal with the pain of divorce. The name of his seminar is “Beginning Again.” We took Olan and Barbara to our church on Saturday for a fellowship meal followed by a time of “picking and grinning.” Our “blue-grassers” played and then Olan and Barbara played with them. Olan is 81 and Barbara is in her last 70’s and yet they play and sing quite well.

Sunday morning started off with my son thinking I had lost my mind. Olan and Barbara travel the country in their Motor Home. They were parked in my driveway so I was driving them to church. They were sitting in the middle seat in my Expedition as I was idling in my driveway awaiting my wife to join us for the trip to church. I was talking to them as my son was walking up our driveway. As I was talking I noticed that he had stopped and was staring at me with one of those “Dad has lost his mind again” looks. I rolled down my window and asked him if there was a problem. It was at that point he noticed Olan and Barbara in the car. He almost sighed with relief as he said, “I thought you were talking to yourself.” Fortunately he didn’t add the word “again” to the end of his sentence.

Olan taught our combined Sunday School, preached for Worship, and taught again at a special evening service we held for him. I would highly recommend Olan to any church that has folks that are divorced, divorced and remarried, or considering qualified men for serving as elders or deacons who have a divorce in their background. There is no one (my opinion) who is more studied on these subjects than Olan.

Olan quickly establishes that his seminar is not about giving an “O.K” to divorce. He and Barbara have been married for 61 years. I told someone I just hope to live to be 61. Any way, his ministry is about correcting the errors that has creped into our theology in the past concerning marriage being a “sacrament” that cannot be broken and how the power of the blood of Jesus Christ can forgive all sins, including divorce. The other part of his seminar deals with the traditional practice of “forbidding marriage.” Olan is Biblical taking things back to the original Greek as he lays down the true meaning of God’s words concerning these subjects. In fact, our web guy has posted Olan’s lessons at our website, http://www.cocoachurch.org/

Please feel free to listen for yourself if you’re interested and please, if you feel the need please invite this brother to your church or home if you or those you know have suffered through the pain of divorce or considering adding men for elders and deacons who have a divorce in their background.

I did want to add that we also had a “Family Talk” yesterday before our evening service. The spirit of our meeting was nothing short of encouraging. People truly seem to want to find a way to engage in ministry. One of our worship leaders and his wife at their cost built a small stage in the corner of our Fellowship Hall. They are looking to open a “Bluegrass / Story-telling / Coffee Café” to be held on Tuesdays or Thursdays. To me it was another example of folks using the talents that God has given them to creatively think of another “on-ramp” to our church. I certainly hope it is successful.

Have a good day family.