Post by LadyAjax on Sept 17, 2018 4:32:36 GMT -8
We had this phenomenal church where our entire family felt plugged in and connected and where we really got spiritually fed and lead to deeper understanding of God's nature and Word. Then that church went on hiatus(that's how we're characterizing it to our children who still think our Pastor is eventually going to come back from sabbatical and start up weekly services again), and we were in mourning for a while and unwilling to search out a new church home. Then (about the time we were peeking our heads out of the spiritual sand to think about "churchshopping") our family made some pretty momentous lifestyle changes and we now live a "nomadic" lifestyle; we're traveling the country visiting family and friends and seeing America along the way.
This is problematic for regular church attendance. For so many reasons.
Not only because we are not long in one area to be able to plug into a community and build relationships, but we are almost always traveling on the weekend, moving our house from one region to another, so Sunday is a "driving day", so we're not physically in a place in one spot on that one day to attend any church. So I just can't "even" wrap my brain around how to physically DO church now.
But also because I'm a lot pickier than I used to be.
Church has some big shoes to fill! In so many ways. Not the least of which is that there are certain ideologies that are common in American churches that I am no longer comfortable enduring or allowing my children to imbibe. And I don't "even" know how to begin to find church(es) that we would be comfortable in.
Yesterday we attended church for the first time in a very long while. We are in Maine for a few weeks and able to attend the home church of our family in the area. United Methodist. Relatively stodgy, but nice. And actively motivated to build depth of relationship in their community, which is nice. More than half of us were more than a bit teary grieving the loss of familiar faces and places and activities.
But it was Good.
My son went on a hike with their youth group. My daughter drew pictures for her Sunday School teacher. I was convicted about God's Sabbath commandment.
All that to say I'm at a bit (more than a bit) of a loss as to how to "even"
do church in this new new chapter of our lives...
This is problematic for regular church attendance. For so many reasons.
Not only because we are not long in one area to be able to plug into a community and build relationships, but we are almost always traveling on the weekend, moving our house from one region to another, so Sunday is a "driving day", so we're not physically in a place in one spot on that one day to attend any church. So I just can't "even" wrap my brain around how to physically DO church now.
But also because I'm a lot pickier than I used to be.
Church has some big shoes to fill! In so many ways. Not the least of which is that there are certain ideologies that are common in American churches that I am no longer comfortable enduring or allowing my children to imbibe. And I don't "even" know how to begin to find church(es) that we would be comfortable in.
Yesterday we attended church for the first time in a very long while. We are in Maine for a few weeks and able to attend the home church of our family in the area. United Methodist. Relatively stodgy, but nice. And actively motivated to build depth of relationship in their community, which is nice. More than half of us were more than a bit teary grieving the loss of familiar faces and places and activities.
But it was Good.
My son went on a hike with their youth group. My daughter drew pictures for her Sunday School teacher. I was convicted about God's Sabbath commandment.
All that to say I'm at a bit (more than a bit) of a loss as to how to "even"
do church in this new new chapter of our lives...
- thanks for the update. We ourselves have lately been crawling out from our cave and venturing forth exploring the larger body of Christ in the Portland area. So far actually it has been more refreshing than I expected, but all in all it does feel daunting. I have to check a lot of my opinions/ sift through my expectations to divide the important from the preferred.