I'm having a little trouble finishing these posts on finding the church because it all seemed to end so anticlimactically....After searching around for, oh what, 12 years? I did a google looking for another church I thought we might try. I don't remember how but I ended up reading this culture statement at RCC. "Wow," I thought, "either these guys are a lot like us or they are crazy. (It's a fine line you know. :) So I gave dh the address and sent him and the oldest two children to check things out. I wasn't taking any chances that they might actually be crazy. And besides, have you ever tried checking out churches with-then-7 children in tow. It's a good way to become the center of attention really fast. Which most of you know I avoid as best I can..
The service was at 11:00 and they still weren't home at 4:00.
Finally they came in and of course I was ready with questions-the biggest being "What on earth have you been doing all this time????"
He threw the bulletin at me (what, all 10 pages of it?) and said "Well, if you want to know what they did there's the whole service right there.
The first thing I said was "Oh!! They have responsive readings!!" (Now that seems very normal to me but at the time responsive readings were so very liturgical.) I was psyched!
They had a meal together afterwards (Which is why they were so long.) and the kids loved it and Rand was excited so the next week we all went and there we are.
It's like so many thing in life it seems. Waiting waiting and waiting for God to answer a prayer. Wondering if He will, if He hears, and if one can endure all the waiting. Just like waiting for a wedding, a baby, looking for a house, so many things to wait for! We can't make it come, can't speed it up, just wait! I hate to wait. Sometimes it seems like it would be less painful for me to decide that I don't want something after all then to wait for it. But that isn't exactly true with some things no matter how I try. I knew what I wanted was something right and good..but it seemed so long in coming. Maybe so I could appreciate more when it did.
And then suddenly you do actually get whatever it was for which you were waiting. And on one hand the time had gone by so slowly. But not really because there is always so much to do and to prepare. And there's God at your shoulder saying "If you just could have trusted me. We could have done a lot better and been a lot more joyful over these past years." And I feel sorry that I wasn't more trusting. But then when the next baby is due do I learn? I guess what really counts is what we do when we are waiting. To still be faithful and purposeful.
Then a couple years later the waiting for thing is normal life and then you're waiting for something else!
I'm glad that even though it was depressing at times we didn't give up on finding the right church for our family. I'm glad we didn't give into the temptation to think that we were just being weird and we should go along with what everyone else was doing and put our children in children's church and not worry about doctrine etc., etc., Sometimes it was a real temptation to do so! I'm glad that the waiting is over too!
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6 comments:
Hi, Kerri,
I've appreciated reading your account of your family's "Church Odyssey".
I notice that one of your links is about learning to sing the psalms online. Did you end up finding a church where the Psalms of God are sung in public worship? That is our conviction, that we should use God's songbook in worship, so I just wondered. Thanks!
Hiya. Encouraging post. Doctrine IS so important. Glad you found your church.
Hi Roberta!
Joyce-We aren't exclusively Psalm singing, as some churches are. For an example last week we sang Psalm 15, Psalm 133, Psalm 45 and Psalm 47. But we also sang some other hymns and the Apostles Creed for communion. Also, the Psalms are not directly quoted, they are paraphrases.
Hi, Kerri,
We are currently attending the United Reformed Church, where the church order states that the Psalms are to have the principle place, but some hymns are sung also. However, this is the most faithful local church we have been able to find, so we are seeking to maintain the unity of Christ's church by attending there. In family worship, we us the Scottish Psalmody, "being the Scottish Metrical Version of the Psalms (1650), with tunes". :)
It's good to hear other's tales of waiting on God for extended periods of time. Sometimes when my prayers aren't answered in a "timely fashion" (my time, that is!), I start to wonder if there really is anything to this prayer thing after all. So thanks for the post. You and your kids are a blessing to our congretation!
Elly
Hi,
I just followed my statcounter back to your blog and found that you are attending the church where my siblings and I were baptized over 20 years ago! Small world, huh?
If you think of it, you could tell the elders hi from Steve & Carol Brown's oldest daughter.
:)
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