A Quest for Home

A church home that is. Once again, Chris and I find ourselves searching for the right church home. This seems to be a never ending saga for us since we moved to Tucson. The problem is that we so LOVED the church that we came from and churches are so vastly different out here that we have not been able to fill the void so to speak. We really like the church we have attended most since we moved here, Catalina Foothills. The church is not perfect, but it's a good fit. Or at least, it has been until recently. One of the biggest reasons that we returned again and again to that church is because in so many ways we have felt like we have a family there. We connect well with so many other families there and it has been nice. However, what we now run into is that if we are there, connecting with and fellowshipping with those families we enjoy the most, then, during the time that that occurs, there is nothing for our middle schooler. No class meets for him. No group. Nothing. So we go to worship as a family, then Clara goes to her class, Ben to his...and poor Max has to come and sit through our class with us. And that really isn't working for any of us. Next year, I will have two middle schoolers. And so we have come to the conclusion that this is not a good fit for us. Now...we can give up our class and the people we love and adore being with. But then we have lost the main reason we kept being drawn to that church in the first place. I guess I want church to be more than just a once a week worship service for my kids. I want it to be a lifestyle. A group. A place they spend a lot of time, and get to know a lot of great Christian people. I grew up in the church. I was part of a fantastic youth group and the youth bible study totally packed out our youth minister's apartment each and every week. We looked forward to being there and being a part of the body of Christ and I hope my children will also be blessed with such an experience. And the older they get, the more important that is to me. And so today, we visited yet another church. This has been quite an adventure to date. Bouncing between disco balls and defibrillators, boring to bodacious, you name it, we've tried it. And that is pretty amazing for me, because I am really pretty set in my mind as far as what I am looking for in a worship experience. I've definitely been worn down a bit on that one now in the last 4 years. I am not nearly as surprised by things as I might once have been. I pretty much expect to find a group of men in every congregation leading music while simultaneously living out their "boy band" dreams. You find them up on stage, electric guitars in hand, the big drum set, the cool and funky hats. Rocking out under the guise of "praise music". Without fail, every congregation has one. Honestly, the ONLY two churches in all of Tucson that we have visited that have a real live, honest to goodness old fashioned piano are Casas and Catalina Foothills. It's a fact that I have come to expect. I don't love it, because I think the piano is a beautiful instrument and I think you CAN worship and praise God without 3 electric guitars and a drum set. But I have come to know it as the way of the West...and I just deal with it. It's not in my nature...but I'm pretty proud of myself for seeing past that a bit. Today's church visit was no different. It was the typical Tucson set up. Only this sanctuary had a garage door in it. Yep. It would just roll right up there onto the ceiling. That was interesting. Maybe they open it up for weddings? Who can say? The boy band was up there. The music selection was reasonable. And while it was loud, it was tolerable. The boy band had a decent male vocalist who led the singing. Decent. And he was, in turn, backed up by the doo-wop sisters. Two lovely ladies who ooohed and aaahhhhed right on tempo in perfect unison. The next thing that caught my eye, was that just a few moments into the sermon there was a "Virtual Pastor's Question of the Day", where the pastor threw out a question to the congregation. The one in front of him, as well as the various satellite congregations. He then instructed the various congregations to take out their cell phones and TEXT him their answers to the questions and put his blackberry # up on the screen big as a dollar. It felt like that moment at the end of American's Funniest Home Videos when all the different audiences grab their voter thingy and vote for their favorite video. Everyone snatches up their cell phones and proceeds to send in their thoughts on the matter. Hmmm. Very interesting. I have to say that that was a first for me. The whole invitation to text in the service. There were a lot of "repeat after me" moments. Let's all read the screen together moments. Those were a little annoying for sure. There was a little video, commercial-like blurb that talked about how God is not a vending machine and showed a guy getting his hand stuck inside the coke machine. There was a skit presentation done by a drama group. I'm not huge on skits as part of the every day worship service. It can be a fun thing from time to time...but I'm not a particularly huge fan of weekly theatrics in the church. The pastor's message was fine. Not deep and quite free of hell's fire and brimstone. It was gentle and invitational in sorts...but not calling only to those who are not in relationship with Christ, but an invitation to all of us to take the time to be more intimate in our walks. Once we were in the car, I began taking the poll to see what all the individual Roberts clan thought of the morning. I was surprised to hear that Ben liked it. Max was neutral, but not negative. Clara was concerned that she would not get to go to any kids activities (though we assured that if we went back we would find some for her) and Chris said he thought it was "interesting". All in all, there was nothing to make me run screaming away. The people seemed nice enough. There seemed to be tons of kids running around. I think that all of us would be okay going back again and running another test to see what we think. We jokingly discussed flying back home to Pensacola on the weekends to attend Olive Baptist again. And while Chris travels a lot, we just don't have that many frequent flyer miles! And so...next week is a new week. I took great comfort in the fact that there was no disco ball (I promise you that as I walked in that door I had my eyes lifted to the ceiling. From afar I am certain that it looked as though I was searching the heavens for God himself...a holy act of reverence. If only they knew!) At the end of the day, what matters is that we were able to worship as a family and it was a good experience for us. Who knows what adventures next week might hold for us?! I guess we shall find out!