have you ever had to “pick” a church? or have you ever had to metaphorically form a checklist of things the church needed to have or not have to meet your expectations? we have ”church hunted” SO many times mostly due to moving, and it is a draining process. i’ll have to admit, it has caused more ”heated talks” in our marriage than any other topic. i can’t tell you how many churches we have stepped foot into whether it be for 15 minutes (and yes, there was a church that we literally walked out of after 15 minutes) or a couple sundays. the process is so frustrating because you start to observe things with such a critical eye instead of really focusing on the purpose of church. some of the (superficial) reasons for us: the congregation is all 20-somethings; the congregation is all senior citizens; the pastor never opened the bible (because it was all in the handout); the music was too boring/old/or just didn’t flow well; the atmosphere was too cold/dark/uninviting; and the #1 reason – it was just too cheesy/fake or it felt like they were “doing church just to DO church”.
i’ve struggled with what church is and is not supposed to be and how much of it really relied on my opinion or how i “felt” about it. how much “sacrifice” do you make to be at a church in regards to travel time, wants/needs and relationships? or by me even thinking twice about those things, does that automatically make me less spiritual since church isn’t supposed to be about me?
matt and i grew up in two VERY different churches. i grew up in a “mega” church with 4+ services on saturday nights and sunday mornings (christmas eve was like 8+ services). i was very involved in the youth group including missions trips all over the world. matt grew up in a much smaller / more traditional atmosphere. he too was very involved in a close-knit community. both were neither good nor bad, just VERY different which caused frustration when trying to “pick” a church that wasn’t solely based on preference or what we were “used to” growing up.
i think we’ve found a place where we both didn’t think we would ever end up. and it’s different than most churches we have experienced. people are happy. people are filled with joy. they practice what they preach. they enrich lives and encourage you to spread it. they teach salvation and present the gospel every chance they get. they don’t sugar coat it. and while i know this church isn’t the perfect church and lots of people wouldn’t necessarily be drawn to it, we have been blessed by it! it’s almost too good to be true. and it’s an unbelievable feeling. we’re excited to see what God does.
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October 15, 2009 at 6:28 am