Well we made it through, Last week was our final week of youth ministry at Cross Walk Chapel. Wednesday night the kids were really awesome,,, I never counted but there was ALOT of folks upstairs to show their love and support to our family, It was a great time. Then Sunday morning we finished off our last Sunday Morning at Cross Walk which was strange and surreal. Since I have explained to the board of the church our intentions I see no wrong in telling you all that we are going to visit new churches.
So this is a new and exciting time for me, my church experience has been pretty routine. I started going to Praise when I was 3, went there until I was 17 when I began attending New Canaan. At New Canaan began working in Student ministry, At 20 took a Middle School Pastor Job at Trinity Fellowship, stayed heir until 2002 when I went back home to Praise where I stayed until 2005 when I went to Cross Walk. Although while it looks like a lot of moves, going from one church to another due to new opportunities as a minister is quite different from just finding a new church. For instance we didn't shop around, one Sunday i am getting a goodbye from one group then the next Sunday I am being welcomed to a new one. It is just a different kind of experience.
So now I hope you kind of understand why we are excited at the opportunity to visit around, not excited so much to leave one but excited at the possibilities involved with all the others. If you have had negative experiences looking for a church PLEASE do not respond and tell me how horrible your experience was. I am sure there will be certain down sides to this transitional time but we choose to focus on only the great possibilities right now, so don't be a Debbie Downer. Also a few people have hinted at us visiting their church... and while we appreciate the offers and may just come visit to spend a Sunday with friends, we are actually looking for a church in Dallas, Villa Rica or Rockmart. We want to get closer to home but if you go to a church around there let us know!
Okay so today I wanted to really pose my first question to you, my loyal followers, This question is to just get an idea of how you feel about the subject, not to create a great debate on the comment page. I will not respond to questions basically just because the question will be the subject of a future Blog.
Brewer's Question of the Week
Place in order from 1 to 5 (1 most important, 5 least important) the personal importance of these specific parts of a church experience( I know there are more, let's just focus here for now). If you would like to explain why that would be great...if you just want to list'em you can do that as well.
Your choices in no specific order:
Fellowship (Sunday school, small groups, events (although i am aware there is more than fellowship in these things... you get the idea))
Music (Style, Skill)
Message (Pastors presentation of the word, style, personal growth or conviction through preached word )
Denominational Ties (government and system of beliefs)
The Tots (children's, youth, nursery)
Ok.. on my comp now so I can reply here!
ReplyDeleteFellowship, tots, music, message, denomination.
I had a really hard time with that choice! The top four were dealbreakers for us during our search... They are so close it could be a tie! We HAD to have fellowship with like minded friends. We hadn't had that in a long time, and were in desperate need for it! And by like minded, I don't mean denominational beliefs, I mean age, place in life, monitary status.. Etc. It's sounds shallow, but going from being a youth pastor to working in a church where we had nothing in common with anyone, we just needed normal people! LOL
Also, Caleb had to like it. He had to have fun too, not just us! Fun is a big deal to me. Some churches think fun is a bad word.. At the church we have finally found, fun is one of their core values! Yay! If the kids aren't having fun, they won't look forward to one of the most important things in life and that's a deal breaker for us.
Music is what ushers us from the hustle and bustle of life to the presents of God! No matter what is going on, put on your favorite worship song and just try to hold back... Ya can't! Music is built into us! It's how we express ourselves. Think of the most important things to our society... Secular and Christian.. Now ask yourself, is there a song about or for this? I bet there is!
Message is also a dealbreaker.. You have to believe in the message you are hearing, and you have to stay awake for it too! lol. I once went to a church (briefly) that the pastor read what seemed to be a theological paper he wrote every Sunday! And he read it quickly, but somehow still took an hour for the sermon! It's one thing if your church goes long because of a spirit led revival or something! But to simply go long because you planned a sermon that took an hour to read?? Ugh! It was horrible! Haha! We got outta there!
Last on my list is denomination because unless it's drastically different who cares? And if it is drastically different, it's not going to line up with the top 4! So that's that! We have found a church that we LOVE! The foundations they have built their church on, or their "core values", are so in line with our family values it is unreal!! And when we got in the car we asked Caleb if he had fun and did he like it, and held our breath lol. His response was.. I want to always go there! Yay! And the rest is history! lol
Fellowship, Message, Music, Denominational Ties, The Tots. :)
ReplyDelete<3- Chelsea.