As I said in my previous post our first church is special to me and I was in no way completely unhappy there. But a little over a year and a half ago I starting feeling I needed to be somewhere else. I won't go into all of the details but basically there were certain things, programs, I wanted for myself and my girls I could not find at our church. Programs, groups and studies I felt I needed in order to strengthen my relationship with God. The church was also huge. If you did not get there 30 minutes before service there was a good chance you were going to have to sit in the hallways or the dining area and listen to the service through speakers or on television. For someone like myself who is on the shy side, it was easy to get lost in the crowd. I brought up the subject of looking for another church to Ed. He understood my feelings and felt the same way about some of the issues I had. Work was crazy stressful for him at the time. He worked seven days a week which left me flying solo on the new search.
I began to really think and pray about what I was missing, what I wanted and what God wanted. In a lot of ways I was not looking forward to looking for a new church but I intended to take as long as necessary to find the right place for us even if that meant six months or more of attending a different church every Sunday.
The Sunday after Thanksgiving in 2008 Gabrielle and I visited the second church on our list. Immediately I really liked the church. I was greeted by friendly faces and hello's. The music was incredible. I really enjoyed the service and decided we would go back the next week. And so each Sunday we continued to attend this church. For the first year there were plenty of missed Sundays. Once I hit the 8 month mark during my pregnancy with Samantha I was really feeling miserable. None of my clothes fit and I had no energy at all. After Samantha was born I was anxious to get back though. Once we finally made it back to church I had that initial feeling from my first visit all over again. By the summer Ed's work situation had eased up enough he was able to attend church with us. It felt good to be back at church as a whole family - now bigger by one.
Although we had been continuously attending church I had not given much thought into becoming a member. When Samantha was six months old I inquired about having her baptized. The church office told me one of the parents had to be a member of the church to have her baptized in the church. As part of the baptism the parents reconfirm their commitment to the church. I did not want to become a member for the sole purpose of having Samantha baptized so her baptism was put to the side temporarily so I could focus and pray on whether this was indeed the church for us.
During this time I did begin to have some doubts. It was only the second church we attended. Didn't I need to visit a lot more churches to make such a decision? Also after a year of attending this church I had yet to really meet anyone or get involved with anything. This is where I get to brag on my husband a little bit. I talked to him about what was going on in my head. His response was basically this, "If you really want to go to some more churches we'll go but do you really think you've given this one a real chance?" He words were exactly what I needed to hear. Sure, Ed liked this church and he was not thrilled at all about looking for another one again. But he was going to support how I was feeling. He also wanted me to be sure this was what I wanted. He knew how much I wanted to get involved and he also knew I had not put any effort in getting involved yet. After all, there was not anything about the church I didn't like so far, I was just feeling "lost in the crowd" once again.
After more prayer I decided I did need to give it a real chance. That is sort of where my Sunday school new year resolution came into play. And no, I still haven't been to Sunday school but other great things have happened. This brings me to January of this year. In the next post I'll go into the things God has done in the past couple of months to make me realize this is indeed the church for us.
I began to really think and pray about what I was missing, what I wanted and what God wanted. In a lot of ways I was not looking forward to looking for a new church but I intended to take as long as necessary to find the right place for us even if that meant six months or more of attending a different church every Sunday.
The Sunday after Thanksgiving in 2008 Gabrielle and I visited the second church on our list. Immediately I really liked the church. I was greeted by friendly faces and hello's. The music was incredible. I really enjoyed the service and decided we would go back the next week. And so each Sunday we continued to attend this church. For the first year there were plenty of missed Sundays. Once I hit the 8 month mark during my pregnancy with Samantha I was really feeling miserable. None of my clothes fit and I had no energy at all. After Samantha was born I was anxious to get back though. Once we finally made it back to church I had that initial feeling from my first visit all over again. By the summer Ed's work situation had eased up enough he was able to attend church with us. It felt good to be back at church as a whole family - now bigger by one.
Although we had been continuously attending church I had not given much thought into becoming a member. When Samantha was six months old I inquired about having her baptized. The church office told me one of the parents had to be a member of the church to have her baptized in the church. As part of the baptism the parents reconfirm their commitment to the church. I did not want to become a member for the sole purpose of having Samantha baptized so her baptism was put to the side temporarily so I could focus and pray on whether this was indeed the church for us.
During this time I did begin to have some doubts. It was only the second church we attended. Didn't I need to visit a lot more churches to make such a decision? Also after a year of attending this church I had yet to really meet anyone or get involved with anything. This is where I get to brag on my husband a little bit. I talked to him about what was going on in my head. His response was basically this, "If you really want to go to some more churches we'll go but do you really think you've given this one a real chance?" He words were exactly what I needed to hear. Sure, Ed liked this church and he was not thrilled at all about looking for another one again. But he was going to support how I was feeling. He also wanted me to be sure this was what I wanted. He knew how much I wanted to get involved and he also knew I had not put any effort in getting involved yet. After all, there was not anything about the church I didn't like so far, I was just feeling "lost in the crowd" once again.
After more prayer I decided I did need to give it a real chance. That is sort of where my Sunday school new year resolution came into play. And no, I still haven't been to Sunday school but other great things have happened. This brings me to January of this year. In the next post I'll go into the things God has done in the past couple of months to make me realize this is indeed the church for us.
1 comment:
Oh, I know how difficult the "church search" can be, especially when going it alone! Glad that you were welcomed there. Looking forward to reading the rest of the story.
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