Church Hunt

One aspect of our move to the city was that we would be changing churches.  That was something that I wasn't looking forward to.  We went to an awesome church.  We loved the preaching, the music, the fellowship.  Our kids loved the Sunday School, Carl had the chance to preach, and we made my parents happy to be able to share a pew with them each week.  People affirmed their appreciation for us and when they heard we were moving were sad to see us go.  Some even told us we should just drive back for the services.  It's heart warming to be loved like that!

But we realized that we needed to find a new church family where we were living.  We spent time talking about some things that were important to us and set out to find churches that may have some of those qualities.  We narrowed down our list to three churches and started to check them out.  We were transparent with the people there saying we were looking for a church family.  You'd think with only three it would be easy.  Well, it's not the case.

Each one has some amazing aspects to it.  The kids enjoyed themselves at all three (nuts, kind of wishing at least one of them someone would burst into tears at the mention of returning).  We really enjoyed ourselves and were blessed by each church's uniqueness.  This shouldn't be rocket science and I told Carl that we can't spend tons of time agonizing over it.  Because we could float for months and that wouldn't be good for our family.  We need a place to start to grow relationships.

We're relatively inexperienced in church shopping because for the majority of our marriage we have served as paid leadership.  If a church pays your salary, it's probably the one you should attend.  There's no searching at all.  Done deal as simple as that.  

On the other hand, we're used to finding a church in a short while.  Take Fresno and Santa Cruz.  We found places to be pretty quickly and plugged ourselves in.  We figured we shouldn't take time searching and searching and searching for what?  Something better in this area but not so good in another?  For something different but practically the same when it all came down to it?  Shouldn't then it be easy enough to find a church now?

I don't know why it this time it feels different.  Maybe because our time here isn't temporary/short term like the last three places we have gone.  Maybe because this has nothing to do with employment as a pastor.  Maybe because we're trying to balance going where we are needed to serve and what our needs are.  Maybe because the decision feels heavier because our kids are getting older and we aren't just looking for two adults anymore.  

So we pray and try to discern and not get all worked up in a froth about it.  Because really, it'll be His call and not a check list that brings us to our new church family.