A New Church Experience
True to my list, I actively sought to get my family dressed and ready, and into church doors this morning.Now, if daddy had gone with us, we would have probably tried the mega church--because he is right and I need to give it a chance.
You see, Daddy and I have two different desires for a church home. Besides just wanting to go to Strasburg UMC every Sunday--I want a smaller church home with warm friendly people who will welcome us all.
Daddy wants to go to a big huge church and sit in the back and not have anyone know if we are there or not. I think he thinks if no one knows he is there, no one will notice he isn't there and won't "judge" him for missing church.
But, there is one thing we agree on. I call it wanting "an old person's church," but however you look at it--we want super traditional. I am not a fan of praise bands and overhead projector things with the words to hymns on the wall. I find 3-4 services and 5-6 ministers discouraging.
Clearly this is the way all churches are headed since they have to add on so many bells and whistles to get the "young folks" in the pews. So, finding a strictly traditional church is going to be hard. And finding a traditional church that packs in so many people no one will notice my husband didn't attend that morning, will be even more difficult.
But, back to today.
I really didn't want to go to that mega church (that's my description for it, not theirs), especially not by myself with 2 small kids. So, I googled again, and what do you know there is a third option for Mechanicsville.
The kids and I drove quite a ways, but with 10 minutes to spare we found Enon United Methodist Church. And it was small, and it was full of older people, and it was warm and friendly.
The pews were packed and I thought how wonderful for them to be so small (and I mean really small, two very short sections on pew rows) and yet to be full. Well, as it turns out they were dedicating their first stain glass window (told you it was small) and so there were lots of visitors.
There was a choir, and a special singing sextet from the choir that all sang. The lady who did the children's message was sweet and reminded you of a kindergarten teacher. There were plenty of kids for such a small congregation, and besides being hot--I enjoyed the worship service. Thomas was somewhat well behaved, and Gracie kept her self busy with her church activities bag.
I left feeling good about the experience, but knew I would never get Garren to try it out.
But, it was a good Sunday morning with my kids beside me in the pew--and it felt good--and it lasted all day.
Glad you liked it! I do hope you'll give a large church a chance because I'm just thinking about all the opportunities offered for children in larger churches. If I'd grown up in the small church Elliott grew up in, I would NOT have even wanted to go to church because it would have been boring. It would merely have been get dressed up to go sit in a pew and listen to a preacher preach...not much fun for a child. However, going to Oak Grove during my childhood was awesome. I loved church and couldn't wait to go. I'm so excited to see my daughter sitting in the same Sunday School rooms I sat in and standing on the same stage that stood on to sing as a child. Of course, they are doing even more with the children now than they did when I was little. I wish you lived here and could go there with us! Thomas and Gracie would love it!
ReplyDeleteYou'll find the right fit before long. It takes a lot of courage to get out and and try new churches... you're a lot stronger than I ever was!
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