Church Visit #8

Please join me today in my family’s continued search for a church home.

If you have been following these adventures, you know that we visited four churches in November and December.  We didn’t really set our hearts on one.  We visited a couple of them a couple of times.

In January,  a friend of mine was preaching at the church he is on staff at since the pastor recently resigned.  An interesting thing happened.  We liked the service despite having no expectations going in.

We went back the following Sunday and enjoyed it again.

This Sunday we again returned to this church.  We also did something we haven’t done since August.  We went to Sunday School AND returned for the Sunday night service.

So how was it?

The thing that stands out from the Sunday School class was that these people really love each other.  The teaching was fine, but this group is definitely close-knit.  Before going into the class, I told Jan that I was not going to say anything and just observe.  If you know me, you will understand that this is extremely difficult for me to do.  I love to talk about the Lord and the Bible.  I failed in my goal of not saying anything.

My friend preached again on Sunday morning.  He preached about God taking His people through difficult situations to get them where He wants them to be.  This was something that everyone could relate to.

In the Sunday night service, a lay preacher preached.  He spoke from the first nine verses of Romans and gave us eight ways to evaluate where we are spiritually, such as praying, reading the Bible, visiting orphans and widows, watching movies, tithing and watching movies.  There were others, but I cannot remember them all.

So, where are in our search?  Honestly, there are no other churches that we want to visit.  My kids are going with the youth group to a youth conference in March.  We are happy to stay here for now.  We are not quite to the point of joining and we haven’t “landed” yet but we are definitely hovering.

I like this church and it has great potential to grow beyond where it is today.  If things continue as they are this will probably be our new church home and I look forward to serving this church in some way.

Here is the question I want to leave you with.  I plan to change my series to something like  First Year In The New Church at some point.  When should I make that change?

What say you?