Church

For the first time in ages I am excited about going to church.  Bob and I wanted to find and have been looking for a church that had an evening service so he could better attend.  His pain and sleep schedules are such that regular Sunday morning church is difficult to get to.  I did some Googling and found a church less than 5 miles from us that has a Thursday evening service.  It seems to be all year long and not just for the summer months as some churches do.  However, in the summer, this congregation meets in the park behind the church; have a cookout before and ice cream after.  The only real problem with this is that I usually have class on Thursdays through mid-November (unless we are on a break) and if we like this church, Bob will have to go by himself unless I have a break.  (I suppose I could go on Sunday and he on Thursday but that’s kind of an odd arrangement.)

I have scoured their website and have found other things that excite me about the church.  They have a parish nurse and a ministry to the disabled and their families as well as a health and wellness ministry team.  They also have an infertility support group.  They have small groups and active outreaches into the community.  They believe in preaching Jesus.  They have the Alpha ministry and Precepts Bible study.  They even have a women’s bowling team! The only thing that gives me pause is that they are of a denomination I was not raised.  They are a mainline faith in which I’ve been taught to be wary. 

Bob wants to take it slow and if he doesn’t like it, we won’t continue to go.  His main concern is that they will treat him like a cripple and immediately lump him into the disability support group, which is what has happened at other churches we’ve visited.  I just like that they even consider the disabled at their church at all.  Most churches kind of lump the disabled in as an afterthought.  This church seems, at least in their literature, to actually care about them from the onset. Bob’s idea of answered prayer about finding a new church would be for someone to ask him to try out for the choir right up front.  We are going to go to this church tonight and see how it goes.