Skip to main content

Also, a teenager with a ukulele sang a country song


July 1

United Methodist Church

            An observation: pastors who say “I’m going to keep this brief”—generally don’t.

            We had out-of-state friends visiting us this Sunday, with two little boys who’d spent long hours in the car for two days. The next few churches on our check-it-out list were all quite a drive away, and we didn’t want the pressure of getting everyone out the door early enough to get to one of those churches. So we picked a church in town.
            I don’t have much to say about this church because I really don’t want this blog to become a church-bashing site. And truthfully, there wasn’t really anything wrong with this place; it’s just not for us. People were friendly. No “pass the peace” during the service, so that was nice. There were some things I didn’t love--for example, I couldn’t even tell you now, not much later, what the sermon was about. However, that could be because our friends’ baby was sitting with his mama right next to me, and he’s the cutest little dude ever. And in the pastor's defense, it was her first Sunday at that congregation, and she was admittedly nervous.
            One thing I appreciated: it was communion Sunday, and there were
printed instructions about how that particular congregation does communion (since it seems as if every church does it just slightly differently). That was helpful to people like me, for whom doing something incorrectly is horrifying.
            All in all, though, I think we won’t be going back, and even if pressed for a reason, I don’t think I could tell you why. In the words of Associate Supreme
Justice Potter Stewart, "I'll know it when I see it." Well, he was talking about what constitutes a dirty movie, and I'm talking about a church, so that might not be the most appropriate quote to use. Nevertheless...it just didn’t feel like home. I’m giving it a 4 out of 10.

Labels:

Comments

  1. Joy BachJuly 8, 2018 at 4:15 PM

    Love your posts.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownJuly 8, 2018 at 5:11 PM

    You will know when it's the right one. I've known on the first visits. Something just clicks, and your soul goes "ah, home".

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stuff that doesn't go anywhere else, and some hyperbole.

Now that I’m caught up with Sunday visits, I think I’ll try to post some midweek thoughts about churches in general, The Church, my own ridiculousness, and anything else that seems relevant. Some of it might be serious, but mostly not.  It’s good to write again, even for an audience of ten. You know how places like classrooms and meeting rooms and churches have unwritten but rigid seating charts? That’s another anxiety of mine— am I sitting in someone’s seat? One Sunday, I was quite sure we were doing just that. They stopped, they stared, they looked around, puzzled. What is happening to my WORLD? they seemed to think. They stumbled blindly to another seat, disoriented, and sang all the songs half a beat late. Sorry, people who usually sit there. A friend wrote this comment on a satirical link I posted about introverts in church : Have you seen the new blog by the Berrien County Ministerial Alliance? Yeah, every week a different minister/preacher/pastor posts about ...
10 comments
Read more

I just learned that I didn't know how to spell 'gallivant.'

We’ve decided. We’re just tired of gallivanting around, and Ben especially is longing to make some connections, get involved, settle in. (I’m still content to sit in a pew and just take in the service.) On our way back from the church that I loved last Sunday, I suggested that maybe the solution for us would be dividing our time between two churches. He was a bit stunned; that hadn’t occurred to him. “I’ll have to think about this,” he said. And tonight, while he was beating me in our nightly game of cards, he said, “Well, let’s do what you suggested. At least for a while, until we see if it works.” So this week we’ll be going to the Baptist church that felt like home to Ben. I won’t be miserable there—I didn’t hate it. And next week we’ll be going back to the Presbyterian Church that touched my soul. Ben won’t be miserable there—he didn’t hate it. Who knows how this will pan out? Maybe we’ll start to feel more comfortable, or needed, or blessed by one of the church...
3 comments
Read more

That peculiar smell some old churches have

* Since last week's posting with my wish list for a new church, I've heard from someone who occasionally cleans in her own church building. She reports that recently she found a pile of fingernail clippings in the sanctuary. I never thought I'd have to say this, but I'm adding this to the list: it's important that my future church be fingernail clipping-free. June 17 Presbyterian (USA)             We chose this church because the denomination is on my list, and because Ben was somewhat familiar with the church, as it’s the meeting place for his weekly counseling session for men with domestic abuse issues (he’s a counselor, not a counselee).             When we entered the stone-and-brick building, I noticed that peculiar smell some old churches have. I think it’s composed of velour pew cushions, mildewed plaster, and old peoples’ sloughed-off skin cells. And old peop...
5 comments
Read more