Diversity at BOSS

This morning we visited Bayside Church of South Sacramento (BOSS). There are several multicultural/diverse churches in the area that we know of, but this is one we've actually been curious about anyway - I've come across some of their ministries to the homeless and families in need through work at Chab Dai, Genilson heard Bishop Sherwood speak at a recent men's retreat - so we thought we'd check it out.

Boy were we impressed. It was such a tremendous blessing to visit a church so abundantly full of life, so multicultural, diverse and on fire for God, the surrounding community, and their communal journey of faith. Of course, this is not to say that other churches we have visited, attended or receive support from are not devoted, on fire or doing great things :), we absolutely LOVE our current faith community - it's more to say that we could truly appreciate BOSS, its people, its multiculturalism, and its particular strengths. It certainly reminded us of church culture in Brazil, and it was a joy for me to watch Genilson as he joined in on the dancing during worship and 'Amen, Hallelujahs' during the message - something very common at his own home church in Aracaju.

Bishop Sherwood's message this morning focused on forgiveness. True forgiveness. Serious forgiveness. Having a forgiving attitude and lifestyle. Realizing that as God's children we are expected to forgive others because we are forgiven ourselves, and that the lack of forgiving others in our lives sends a message to our community - and to God - that we think we are "above" it, that we think we are better or that we don't need forgiveness ourselves. It was powerful, convicting and very real. We loved it.

We loved our visit, we loved the message, we loved the diverse community. We think it will be a great place to build relationships and possibly offer our child access to their racial and cultural heritage. We may visit some other options, but this will be hard to beat. A definite positive is that BOSS has a Saturday evening service, so we can easily attend without having to sacrifice the relationships and/or commitment we have already built at Sunrise and other faith communities. We're excited. :)

Thanks for reading.