One thing I love, one complaint, one shameless plug

This is something I love about Ben. No matter what the song, no matter whether he knows it or not, no matter if the congregation is one which barely moves their lips to sing or one which sings with gusto, he’s going to sing it loud.
One of the things I was most looking forward to when visiting churches outside our home territory was having a great excuse to eat Sunday dinner in a local restaurant. Well, that hasn’t happened even once, because the churches we’ve visited have all had services too early in the morning. This doesn't seem at all fair.
In other news, I posted a thing on Facebook Monday that went micro-viral. That is to say, it got quite a few comments and even some shares. It was perhaps the truest thing I've ever written (aside from those times when I've written about my hatred of bugs), and if you missed it on Monday, you can read it here. It's not about church; it's about these two little girls. God makes a cameo appearance.

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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...

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 ...

I didn't even mind that we got red crepe paper streamers (it made sense, in context)

In late June, I went with my daughter and two good friends to a protest march, holding signs that decried the current administration’s then-policy of separating families at the border. At that rally, a pastor spoke about love and unity and peace. Her words were mostly secular, as was appropriate for that rally, but I was drawn to them, and when the rally started to disperse, I sought her out and asked what church she pastored. She gave me her card, with this statement on the back, and I knew immediately that it was a church I wanted to check out. Well, it’s been a busy summer. Sometimes we were away from home, sometimes we had company, and we looked at several churches that were geographically closer to us. As you’ve seen if you’re following this blog (all five of you), none of those churches were quite right. Today was the first Sunday when it worked out to visit the church on this card, 28 miles away. I loved this church. I’ve hinted a bit about this, and those of y...

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