Monday, April 6, 2009

Community vs. individual

So it's been almost a year since Gina and I moved to Cambridge. Since that we've been searching for a new church family(since our old one is a 40 min. drive) and we still really haven't come up with one. It's brutal searching for a new church, but kind of funny at the same time. I used to be the outreach coordinator at our old church and one of the things on my list of things to do was evaluate the welcoming aspect of the church. So going into new churches I find myself analyzing different approaches that are being done at these churches. Part of the difficulty of searching for a new church is that Gina and I only have 2 weekends off together every 2 months. So if you do the math that's about 12 Sundays out of the past year that we've been able to go to a church together. However, if you factor in vacations, different events (baptisms), laziness, etc. we probably really have only gone "church shopping" maybe 7 times. That's not much in one year, and I think we've only checked out about 5 different churches in the area...

This has been very frustrating for us because it is like we are in limbo within our own community. We don't really "belong" at our old church and we have no sense of belonging to a new church. I didn't really think at the beginning that this search was going to take such a toll on us, especially from a belonging point of view. Odd isn't it?

So this past Sunday I went with a friend to Cambridge Community Church which is really close to my house. Once we sat down a man in front of us turned around and introduced himself, and I was a bit taken a back, this was actually the first time someone engaged me in a conversation while visiting one of these churches. After the service he thanked us for coming and encouraged us to come back again for a more "alternative" service. Also, a man noticed while we were sitting that we did not have a bulletin and came and offered us his. Amazing isn't it? Such little things make a huge difference.

This whole concept of "church shopping" has been very questioning to me. What denomination should we go to? What about their worship music? Teachings? What is really valuable to us within a church? These have been some of the questions that have been going through my mind...and then I began asking questions whether or not these questions are really acceptable questions...is it a little selfish of me to be putting my needs for worship before God's needs for me? Maybe...I still haven't figured that out yet...

However, I will say this, just before we left our old church we joined a small group from that church. It has been an incredible experience and has really helped with our "sense of belonging" in this limbo period. Sure we don't always feel like driving 30 min. to get there but once we are there we enjoy it. It's amazing what a community can do for you!!

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