3rd Church Hop

I'm back!!  I didn't hop to an unknown church last week. Since it was Mother's Day I chose to attend church with my mom and the rest of the family. 

Today my hopping took me to Central Church on the NE side of Ft. Wayne.  Like many of the other churches that I visited on this journey they offer more then one church service.  One at 9:30am and the other at 11am. Can you guess which one I attended?  Oh you are getting good.  Yes, I went to the 11am service. I don't know if it was because I went to my regular church last Sunday or what, but today I felt a little more nervous then I had with the first 2. I also found myself not as excited. :( Why is it when I need God the most, those seem to be the times when I feel the farthest from Him? I've had a week of ups and downs, of emotional and physical pain, of self-pity and many worries weighing on my mind. Being the stubborn person that I am, I choose to not burden my family and friends, although this upsets many of them, I know, I know, I need to work on that. But why do I find it so hard at times to remember that those are the times when I need to unburden myself and lay all of this on God's shoulders? He's way bigger and stronger then I am. I have been getting better about this but I still have a long ways to go in giving God control over all of my worries.  Sorry, I kind of got off track there. I guess what I was trying to say is, I have worn myself out this past week by making my worries mine and mine alone, that I started to lose my excitement for finding a church home. Even though I know God can handle all my worries, it's not always easy for me to give them all to Him.  I have faith though.  Faith in Him and faith in myself.  I'll get where I need to be with His help.  

Back to the church I visited today.  I really wish churches would come with a guide. A guide to tell you where to go once you walk in.  Like the first church I attended on this adventure, there were 2 entrances. I parked in front, therefore went in the front entrance.  I walk around trying to figure out where in the world the sanctuary was.  I saw one door that I thought for sure was it.  I can't remember what is said over the door, I think it said Chapel??  I really can't remember, but it was a name that you would think would be where service was held. Nope, not at all.  I open the door, look in and it looked like a kids church.  Ugh!!  Where am I suppose to go.  I see other signs pointing here and there, none of which were making very much sense to me.  At this point I'm no longer nervous but getting a little frustrated.  Why can't these churches be a little more 1st time attendee friendly? I just start walking, see stairs leading up and down. I followed a couple of other people and went down the stairs.  OMGoodness!!  There is the sanctuary!!  Had I parked out back and went in the back door I believe I would have walked right into the sanctuary, but noooo, I had to park in the front and go in the front door, silly me.  If you go to a church that you have never been to before and there are two entrances, pick the one that you normally wouldn't pick to go in.  Two out of the three churches so far had more then one entrance and both times I picked the front door and both times ended up farthest away from where I needed to go. 

Anywho...There was a greeter down there handing out bulletins.  I shake his hand, say hi, get a bulletin and find a seat in the back.  I hadn't been sitting there long when I hear a woman say, "hello."  She said she had never seen me before so she came over to introduce herself to me and to welcome me. First time for that. These churches are so big though I don't know how anyone would notice if someone was new or not.  Kudos to her for noticing. Shortly after that, the Praise Band starts playing.  I loved, loved the first song.  Wish I could tell you what the name of it was.  I watched and waited to see the name, but never saw it.  Time for "meet and greet."  I'm getting good at this. Smile, say "good morning", shake hands. No conversation needed, so even us shy folks can handle this. Great praise band, loved the songs, the music, the singing, the instruments. Yep, I sang again!! :) It's hard not to when they have these great bands up on stage rockin' the house.  Next up was the pastor, Pastor Jeremy.  I didn't feel as though I warmed up to him as soon as I did the last pastor that I heard at Pine Hills, BUT it didn't take long and I feel in love with his message just as I had the others.  Today's message was about, "Judging."  Ahh man, like who out there can't relate to this one?  I know I sure can.  I could go on and on about Pastor Jeremy's message but I won't. He really made you think and he wasn't afraid to hurt anyone's feelings. I like that! I did learn something I'm going to try though if I ever get called for jury duty.  I'm going to tell them, "Sorry but I can't.  It's not my job to judge."  Think it'll work?  :) I remembered my Bible again, still no Bible cover though. My Bible looks a mess with all these notes hanging out everywhere. The verses he was talking about weren't up on the big screen so I was glad I was able to look them up and follow along.  Once I fished my reading glasses out of my purse that is. Glasses on, glasses off, on, off,  oh the joys of getting older. When I took them off I put them on top of my head, at one point they started falling off of my head.  I reached  up, back and around to grab them. It's a good thing I was sitting in back, otherwise I would have probably poked someone's eye out.  I really enjoyed Pastor Jeremy, but the time went to quick and I found myself (AGAIN) becoming bummed that it was over already. I continue to find myself wanting to hear more. What's up with that?? Then I look at the clock when I get out in my car and I'm thinking, "Wow, I've really been here this long?"  Now that's when you know you are enjoying yourself. 

All in all I had a great experience at Central Church.  Once again, I really enjoyed the Praise Band and Pastor Jeremy. 

My plan is to visit Level 13 (yes, that's a church) next week.  With it being Memorial weekend though that may change. By the way, I have had a few people tell me that I should have told them I was going to a certain church and what time I would be there so I could sit with them.  Maybe I'm stubborn or maybe it's the being a "loner" in me, but this is something I feel I want to do on my own.  I don't want anyone to influence where I decide to go.  I don't want to be distracted by someone trying to talk to me during church or asking me what I think, or me being worried about my total awesome singing voice standing beside someone I know and have them pressure me into joining the Praise Band. ;)

I hope to share my experience next week from Level 13, if not, fer sure the following week. Till next time, "Have a great week, a safe Memorial weekend and remember (preachin' to myself here)...Give it all to God. His shoulders are way bigger then ours." 

Psalm 55:22  Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you       

2nd Church Hop

First I want to start out by saying that I have nothing but good things to say about the church I grew up in. I have been feeling the need or "tug" to look around and possibly find a new home church for some time now. I just never had the nerve to do it, nor did I want to admit that I wanted to find something else.  I was comfortable at my church.  I enjoyed everything about it, the people, the music and the pastor.  Not every church is for everybody though.  If that was the case we would have one enormous church in each town. We all have different wants and needs.  Sometimes we just have to step out of our comfort zone and search for them.  So the search continues...  For many years Ft. Wayne has been called, "The City of Churches." (I personally think it should be called, "The City of Banks!")  So I could be doing this church hopping for awhile.  At this point I still only have a total of 4 that I will be visiting.  Feel free to make any suggestions if you know of a church that  you think I may be interested in.

The plan was to take my daughter with me today, but she's been sick so I let her sleep in and rest today. So I hopped alone today. :) Today I visited Pine Hills Church.  They have a total of 3 services.  One on Saturday evening and two on Sundays.  I went to the later one Sunday morning, started at 10:45am.  That's a nice thing about the larger churches.  If you can't make one service there are others to choose from. The Saturday evening service has a nice ring to it, especially for those of us "cough, cough" that like to sleep in on the weekends.  I wasn't as intimidated this week as I was last week by the size of the parking lot.  Although, they did have someone directing traffic and pointing where to park. Just the size of the these parking lots kind of give you a feeling of "not being in Kansas" anymore. Thankfully I didn't have to look around and try to figure out what door to go in this week  There was only one and they had 2 greeters there to greet  you.  I've always thought this is a must at any church, especially for newbies like myself that may be attending.  Plus it gives you that warm feeling of being welcome.  Like the church I visited last week, there were people everywhere, but it was very obvious where the sanctuary was this time. It wasn't near as large inside as last weeks church was.  There were already quite a few people in there seated.  I had no problem sitting in the very back this week (you know, that coffee thing). Oh by the way, I did take my big ole coffee cup in with me this week.  :)  I debated on whether or not I should mention this next part.  I decided to mention it only because I think it's true of a lot of people, many of you may have experienced what I did or even been the other person.  When I first sat down I noticed someone from a few rows up looking at me.  We made eye contact and I realized I knew her. Just as I went to wave she looked away.  She then said something to her boyfriend and then he turned and looked.  Same thing, he looked away before I had a chance to wave.  I've known her for a couple of years, but never became real acquainted with her.  The reason I decided to even mention this is because when that happened I instantly became turned off. If I saw someone I knew walk into my church I would never do something like that. I would make an attempt to welcome them, say hi or at least wave and smile. I could feel myself getting upset by her actions or lack of.  Unfortunately, I'm pretty good at turning my feelings off and shutting down (not proud of this). For a few minutes I became so focused on her that I forgot why I was there. "Focus Stephanie, focus and for crying out loud, chill out!!"  I was there for me and for God!!  

I heard that Pine Hills Church was moving to a new location in the fall.  I soon found out why.  The seats soon filled up.  We were close to sitting on top of one another.  The Praise Band started playing and we sang several songs.  Let me tell ya, that band was ROCKIN'!!  I loved it!!  I sang along again, didn't just mouth the words to make it look like I was singing. Shortly after it started they did the whole "meet and greet" thing.  Did they not get the memo that I sent about the shy new girl that would be there so please don't do this?? UGH!!  Well even so, I was ready for it this time.  I put my big girl panties on and shook hands and introduced myself to those around me. Once I got over the fear of talking to people I realized this part of the service really isn't so bad. It's nice to get to know your neighbors.  Next up, Pastor Mike.  It didn't take long for me to realize that I was going to like this guy. The message was on, "Sacrifice," and he focused on Exodus Ch. 35.  Once again, I didn't have a hard time at all relating to this.  He was easy to listen to and very easy to follow along.  I actually became a little disappointed when I could tell his message was coming to an end.  The time went to quick, I wanted to hear more. We rocked some more to the praise band and then it was over.  They opened the sanctuary doors and we all fell out.  Ok, I'm kidding, it was crowded but we all had our own seat to sit in.  Since I was in the back I was able to scoot out of there pretty quick. Maybe I should have walked over to say, "Hi", to the girl I knew and maybe this is selfish of me but I didn't want her to ruin my good mood.

All in all I had a good time at this church.  Once I reminded myself why and who I was there for I became very comfortable and enjoyed it tremendously.  I even remembered to take a sweater (which I did need) and remembered to take my own Bible. Still haven't got a nice handy dandy cover for it though to help keep all my notes from falling out.

You probably won't hear from me next week.  Since its Mother's Day I will be attending my usual church so I can spend the time and day with my mom, sisters and my kids.  So until next time, "Have a fantastic week ahead and make each day count!!"  :)