Finding A Church

Finding a church that is just right for us in our new area has been a bit like that children's story "Goldilocks and the Three Bears." Some are too big, others too small. Some are too contemporary, while others too traditional. Some believe what we believe, while others follow different traditions and customs. Some churches are very close and some are too far. As a result, finding a church that is "just right" has been a bit of a challenge.

I suppose because we have Elizabeth now, I've really been looking to find a church that is large enough to have a good children's program, but not so large that we feel lost in the crowd. Likewise, we've been looking for a church that has a similar outlook when it comes to matters like believers baptism, salvation by faith and not by works, etc.

Since moving here we would often visit a church that had a great children's program, but whose worship style and beliefs differed from our own. OR we would find a church whose beliefs matched ours, but was too small, with very few young people/children. Likewise, we'd been pretty lazy about going out and hunting... some weekends choosing to take turns "sleeping in" from a previous night of being awakened to Elizabeth's cries.

However, Vassil and I are both very excited because we visited a church today that seemed to fit the bill. It is non-denominational, and a little more of a contemporary service than I am used. But while the worship style differed from my Southern Baptist/Church of Christ roots... their beliefs remain very similar on the important matters listed above. Likewise, it was just the right size for what we were looking for, very diverse, and not terribly far from where we live. The sermon was excellent, although it wasn't delivered by their head-pastor (they have guest speakers during the summer months). They seem very focused on international missions (some currently in Kenya) and seemed to have services in Chinese as well. Also, from what I could tell, they seemed to have a very nice pre-school.

At any rate, we plan to go back again next week, and hope this one will work out for us!

Please pray that we will find a church family! It is SO important to me that Elizabeth be brought up in the church, going to Sunday school each week, and learning about the sacrifice Christ made for her by dying for her sins! Not only that, but I would also like to grow closer in my walk with God, and thereby, need a good church family! And I would also love to make some Christian friends who live nearby. Not to mention the fact that if we found a church home it would get Nana off our case! ;) Just teasing! So please pray for our church-hunting experience! :)