okay,
I'm ready to look for a church home.
Joe
is willing too. I told him I'm going to try blogging about it- and he
agreed to do it too! Although he says he's not as wordy or 'thinky' as I
am- he's got great wisdom, a different perspective, and it would be a
different way for us to evaluate various church experiences.
We
left "the Grove" last April and since there was no way I felt like
church shopping, I just planted a church. Which is definitely not
easier, but this shows how much I didn't want to go through the process
of selecting, visiting and potentially settling into a new church.
We've
done this before- maybe we can write about some of those previous
choices, but this time it feels different. Because we
are different. Significantly different. We are older, much less
conservative, and I am not looking to get into a leadership position. . .
and there are probably several more ways we've changed.
So this time we are shopping in a whole new section of the
store. Maybe another mall altogether. We will be investigating mainline,
liberal churches!
First
stop is the United Methodist Church. We are going
to a relatively new church plant called "Jacob's Well" in Chandler. http://www.churchremix.org/
I
have been considering checking out this particular church for quite a
while, and have 'sent' 2 other families there, both of whom LOVE it and
are now regulars. They sent out a Facebook invitation to this new sermon
series, in which they will have guests from other religions talk about
their faiths. I said we'd come, and they made happy comments. So we will
be greeted by a few friendly faces we know.
Here's
what I'm expecting: Small, Churchplanty vibe: temporary space, young
people, more enthusiasm than professionalism, invitation to coffee with
pastor dude, talk about missional living. But this sermon series is
really intriguing. It might mess up my plan to check out a different
church every other week- because if they do this well and I keep showing
up, I will probably learn a bunch of entirely new things, and have a
perspective shift as well.
Adriene Buffington
