On January 20th from 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m., Pleasant Hill United Methodist Church in Indian Land (238 Fort Mill Hwy.) will be holding a spagetti dinner fundraiser. You can opt to eat in, or you can take it to go! Plates are $7 for adults and $4 for children aged 8 and younger.

If you are craving some pasta AND want to help them earn some money, then check it out!

Tonight at 6 p.m., Trinity Baptist Church in Fort Mill will be hosting a special program just for teens. All are welcome!

It’s a good thing I’m down to 1/4 of a tank of gas. If I can make it to Saturday, I can take advantage of the 50 cent gas buydown event that LifePointe Church and Petro Express are providing local residents on Saturday, March 21.

Readers may recall that LifePointe Church is moving to Fort Mill, into the Charlotte Bobcats training center located near the Charlotte Knights stadium.

The participating Petro Express is located at 2415 S.C. 160 W., and cars may begin lining up at 8:15 a.m. (only accessing the station from SC 160). The lower price for gas will be dispensed only to those cars that can make it through the line between 10 a.m. – 11 a.m. on Saturday.

Tega Cay police will be on hand to make sure everything maintains order. I predict come 11:01 a.m. someone is going to be very unhappy about their wasted morning. Please, pray God, let it not be me.

For more information on this event, call 803-325-5863 or visit http://lifepointecc.com.

photo credit: futureatlas.com

Belair United Methodist Church (8095 Shelley Mullis Road) in Indian Land is doing a very nice thing next weekend (Saturday, March 14). That day, from 12 p.m. – 2 p.m., they are offering families a free meal of soup, cornbread, sandwiches, dessert and drinks. It is being offered with no strings attached, and as a way for the church to give you a break from meal preparation that afternoon!

If you have any questions, please call the church office Tuesday-Thursday mornings between the hours of 8:00 AM and 12:00 noon at (803) 547-6631.

When I was in college in the late 1980s, when my class on modern religions took a side turn into discussing televangelism, the professor arranged for a field trip to the Fort Mill, SC location of PTL Ministries. It was a couple years after “the fall” of Jim Bakker (due to an affair with Jessica Hahn and bilking millions of dollars from supporters), and walking around the campus of Heritage USA was eerie in its emptiness.

And now it has come to light that an Atlanta businessman will have 15,000 hours of PTL broadcasts up for grabs at an auction taking place next month. Supposedly valued at $8 million, some have proposed that the tapes be digitized and made available on DVD or re-broadcast on TV.

Hmmm…I don’t know if that’s a good idea. Is there really a market for a boxed set of shows featuring a fradulent televangelist asking for money to build a theme park when we all know where that ends up?

I will admit that I’m not a fan of going to churches with regular atmospheres. The only time I step foot in a real church sanctuary is when I visit my parents in another state. My own church here in South Carolina meets in a movie theater, and I’ve attended churches that met in bingo halls and lecture rooms (complete with chairs that had their own desk built-in). So I’m not phased in the least to discover that LifePoint Christian Church plans to move into the former Charlotte Bobcats training facility located off I-77 near Gold Hill Road.

Right now the 400+ members of LifePointe is meets at a middle school in Steele Creek but they have plans to be moved into Fort Mill by mid-March. If you want to find out more about LifePointe and their big news, you can find out more by visiting their website, which can be found at www.lifepointecc.com.

This weekend a new church is offering spiritual guidance to our locals. Called “The Gathering,” this church is an extension of the Christian and Missionary Alliance.

Their first service will be tomorrow, Sunday February 1, beginning at 10 a.m. They will be meeting at 3545 Center Circle in Fort Mill and for more information, their website can be found at http://www.thegatheringfm.org.

While the church will be concentrating on membership and growth, they plan on eventually providing outreach services to the community.