Back in Church

Man, as much as I hate to do this- I have a confession to make......we have only been to church 4 times since May. How terrible is that. We moved into our new house in May and decided we wanted to find a new church. We still loved the church we had been attending for 16 years but just felt we needed something more. Especially for our boys. Our church was pretty small and the children's group was comprised of about 10 kids on a good day. The youth group wasn't much bigger. Not that there is anything wrong with that- but we wanted to find a church with a strong program for kids and youth in the hopes that the boys would become involved and want to stay involved during those intense teen years!!

So anyway- we said we'd start visiting churches but then we didn't want to go to one just one Sunday then be out 3 Sundays because of travel baseball. Why, I'm not really sure but that was our thinking.

Another one of our desires was to find a church with a good contemporary service. Again because we thought it would appeal to the boys- plus we had attended church with my brother and his family, going to their contemporary service- and just felt a wonderful sense of Worship. That is what we wanted. Finding that in a Methodist Church isn't that easy around here. Most of the Methodist Churches are either small and their contemporary service (if they even have one) is far from contemporary. Other churches are very large, established churches that are made up mostly of those people that have been attending there since the 1800's- well ok, for many many years. I'm sure if you even mentioned Contemporary service in those churches you'd be run out being whipped with a palm branch! LOL

This past Sunday we visited a new church and immediately felt "right" about it. Although it is very large (they have 5, yes 5 services each Sunday-one of those being a Spanish service) the sense of worship in the service we attended was amazing. The boys loved it right away and so did DH and I. The music was wonderful, you could just see (and hear) the Spirit through the Praise Band/Choir.

One thing DH said he liked the most about the service was something the Pastor Preacher said. Throughout the service the theme was stopping amidst this busy time to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas. Realizing the importance was not on the tinsel, the presents or the parties- but on the expectancy of the birth of Jesus Christ. When Preacher Gayle stepped up to begin her sermon she said "Well, my sermon has already been talked about I guess we can all go home- but wait I'm a PREACHER and you know I'm gonna PREACH". Lewis said he liked that because a dear sweet Preacher- Preacher Patty- who was our Preacher for many years and who died of breast cancer almost 2 years ago- always said she was a Preacher not a Pastor because it was her calling to PREACH!!!


Man, this sure has gotten long. Basically what I wanted to say is that I think we've found a church or rather God has directed us to the Church for us! As Luke said when we were walking through the grocery store after the service- "It sure did feel good to be in church again"!!!