Sunday - a tour and ICR

These pictures are actually from last Sunday... but I haven't shared them yet!

Our home church here in Valley Ranch, is just finishing up a huge addition to the building - primarily with space for children (we had semi-annual parent/child dedication today - there were 11 families and 12 children dedicated - and I think the pastor said that there were 10 more due in the next few months). There are tours available done by church members for church members and we signed up for one last Sunday afternoon. The pictures don't really do it justice, but we are really getting excited about having the additional space.

One of the hallways in the children's area.

One of the rooms in the children's area.

I think all of the children's area rooms have storage areas, a sink, and an attached bathroom (some of the bathrooms are shared between two rooms).

This water fountain area was complete with the tile on the wall behind it.

Pastor's study area with LOTS of room for books!

Looking down the main entrance area - this is the hall from the main lobby. There will be secure entrances into the areas for pre-k and younger, as well as for the 1st-5th grade areas. The youth will also have space in this new facility.

Right now, most of the Sunday Bible study classes are meeting off-campus at Ranchview High School. The youth and a couple of adult classes have been meeting there for a few years now as we had run out of classroom space in the existing building. With the construction, and additional children's classroom space needed, almost all of the adult classes moved off campus this fall. We are looking forward to all of them coming back together in the next few months.

On the past few Sunday evenings, we have been enjoying a series on how science supports the creation account in Genesis, presented by the Institute for Creation Research (ICR). This is a presentation series that they evidently do at churches all over the country, and we are privileged to host this series for the DFW area this fall. ICR is based not too far from our church's location, and many of the researchers are members of our church. It has been fun hearing from other members that we know as "church family members" presenting on the topics on which they are experts and about which they are passionate!

Last week, Dr Henry Morris III presented on "Back to Genesis". Each evening, after the presentation, the presenter takes questions that have been submitted by audience members. Here, Pastor Rickey is posing one of the audience questions to Dr Morris. (Note: Dr Morris is a member of First Baptist Dallas, and was the teacher of the Sunday Bible Study class that some of our friends there were attending a few years ago).

Tonight, Mr Brian Thomas will be speaking on "Dinosaurs and the Bible". The excitement was building this morning as there were models of dinosaur fossils in the church lobby! If you want to listen in, the live stream will be available at http://www.macarthurblvd.org/resources/sunday-sermon-live-stream/ at 6pm central time. Or, after the conclusion of the talk tonight, it will be available in the archive at http://www.macarthurblvd.org/resources/sermon-archives/ (I don't know how quickly the archives are placed - the first 4 topics are available on the archive site now - I don't see Dr Morris' topic yet - it may be that it cannot be released to the public for some reason).