Church Hunting 101

Hey everyone! I'm sorry that it has been a couple days since I've written, I just didn't have a whole lot to say. Of course, my first weekend after starting school is jam packed with homework, mostly reading. But it's alright, most of it is pretty interesting. This is the easy part; I'm a little nervous about all the upcoming assignments. I have to do all kinds of observations for my ECE classes and speeches for my communications class... what fun. The exciting point of my weekend was that I actually went to church this weekend, which is something I haven't done in quite a few months. I've kind of been looking for a new church for various reasons, so today I went to the church of a friend from one of my classes last semester. I tell you, in my church hunt, I've visited churches with big fancy buildings, small run-down buildings, lots of technology, no technology, huge congregations and small congregations, charismatic services and very conservative services, and probably most other churchy adjectives you can think of. And in spite of all these variables, all these differences, I usually see the same thing. I see sedated people sitting in orderly pews and staring into nowhere. Sometimes we'll raise our hands and close our eyes, or interject some random "amens", but we're really just going through the motions. Our churches are impersonal. The fatal flaw of the church in America is this, that I can walk into a church service and sit by myself and then walk out without ever uttering a word to anyone, without connecting or being moved at all. In case you were so terribly misguided, I better tell you that this is not at all how any of the earliest Christians ever intended the church to be. I really firmly believe that the church of Christ should be small groups of believers who live life together and keep each other accountable and actually connect. Both the secular and religious sects of our nation are becoming more and more connected electronically while we disconnect ourselves emotionally and physically and spiritually from other people. And then we complain (especially me) because we don't have anyone to help us in our spiritual/emotional crises. Now I'll step off of my soapbox and tell you about the church I visited today. I can't claim that it's radically different from other churches I've visited, but it definitely felt warmer and more alive than many that I've seen. I spent most of my time there just observing and taking in my surroundings. The relationships between the congregants seemed open and friendly. It was fairly formal, but not rigid. I have to say, this is one of the only churches I have been to where the music actually sounded good. That was refreshing. I didn't really know any of the songs, but they actually managed to sing praisish songs without succumbing to the horror of cheesy, watered-down, unimaginitive modern praise and worship music (think "Here I Am to Worship" or "The Heart of Worship"). So there's one tally point for the church. The announcements, etc, were very brief. Add another tally. The pastor's sermon was very long but very good. He was dynamic and personal, and yet he remained grounded in the Word and in facts. And he actually kept my interest. Add about 1284 tallies to my little checklist. Ok, but then this service that started at 10:30 got to 1:00 and showed no signs of ending. Everyone was praying. Too much praying for me. So I left. But I'm going back next week. Because it was good, very good. And then I went to Staples, and that is probably my favorite store in the world, right after Pier 1. And now I need to go to my madre's friend's house for dinner and then I have 3857696 hours of homework to do. Ok, thankyou if you are still reading this insanely long post. The end.

Fondest regards and salutations,
Jill

PS - The WOTW will be up later, so come back and check it out.